


Unchained Hearts

by jackalope212



Category: Disney - All Media Types, Final Fantasy Series, Kingdom Hearts (Video Games)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/F, F/M, I had a bad idea and took it too far, Kingdom Hearts III Spoilers, M/M, Proud Parent Squad, Redemption arcs for everyone who matters, Riku Loves Sora (Kingdom Hearts), Sora-Xehanort, Soranort - Freeform, will add more tags as the story progresses, will update rating over time
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-07-06
Updated: 2020-10-09
Packaged: 2021-03-04 18:35:41
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 15
Words: 51,960
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25111009
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/jackalope212/pseuds/jackalope212
Summary: Sora said he would be back soon, after saying thank you to his friends in the Sleeping Realms.  But he never came back…Abandoning his original quest, Riku goes to look for his dear friend.  But he can’t do it alone…My take on a particular “what if” scenario at the end of Dream Drop Distance.Updates every Friday
Relationships: Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts)
Comments: 14
Kudos: 102





	1. Prologue

**Author's Note:**

> To readers of my other KH fanfic "Imperfect Love": I am not abandoning that project, I just needed a new beta reader for it. I have someone thinking about it and just waiting to hear back from them. 
> 
> Meanwhile, I'm working on both fics at random times, and I have a majority of this fic planned out, it's just a matter of getting everything written.
> 
> Decided to update the Prologue a day early. Expect Chapter 1 to come out tomorrow on Friday!
> 
> Credit to cosmotomaton for being an awesome beta reader!

**Prologue**

It’d been a week since Sora left for the Sleeping Realms. Seven whole days since anyone had seen or heard from the keyblade wielder. Riku knew that he– or, at the very least, Donald and Goofy– should have gone along with him, even though Mickey and Master Yen Sid both said he would be fine. Sora said that he would only be gone for a short while, just to say thank you to the Dream Eaters he fought alongside while taking his Mark of Mastery. Three days max he had told them.

Now at four days overdue, Riku wasn’t the only one getting worried.

“He still isn’t back yet?” Kairi asked the older teen, her voice made tinny by the gummiphone transmission full of obvious worry. She had started her keyblade training alongside Lea a few days ago, even though she said that she wanted to help them find Sora. She relented on the grounds that she was given a gummiphone to stay in contact with Riku so that she could check in on the investigation. 

“No,” Riku said with a frustrated sigh, running a hand through his short silver hair. He was sitting on the bottom step of the Mysterious Tower alone as he talked to Kairi. He and Mickey had just returned from the Realm of Darkness after another unsuccessful search for Aqua, one of the three missing keyblade wielders, taking a day to rest and recuperate before resuming their search. “Donald and Goofy took their gummiship and have been searching the worlds Sora had been to before, but they got nothing so far.” Riku saw Kairi chew on her lower lip through the phone screen.

“I’m worried, Riku,” she said, voicing what Riku had been feeling since Sora failed to return by the third day. “What if something happened to him? I mean, Sora can take care of himself, but…”

“I know what you mean,” Riku said softly, looking up at the starry sky above him, spotting a few shooting stars here and there. “I want to say that he just needed more time on his own, that he will return when he’s ready. But… something tells me that’s not the case.” Ever since Sora left, he had an uneasy feeling in his stomach, like something bad was bound to happen. He had brought it up with Mickey a few days prior and he’d simply told him that he was just worried for his friend, but reassured him that Sora would be fine. Riku wasn’t so sure that it was just ‘worry’ clawing its way into his heart: something was coming... Something dark… And they would not be prepared for it...

===

That night, Riku had an unusual dream.

Ever since he’d woken up from having dived into Sora’s dreams, he had been reliving what he saw through his own dreams, over and over.

While he was dreaming of Destiny Islands, talking to the apparitions of Roxas, the Roxas look-alike, and the girl with black hair, it had seemed like the island was beginning to fade away. By the time Ansem the Wise showed up and said Sora was awake, the sky had turned dark and the ocean had receded so far away it became a black abyss. It eerily reminded Riku of when the islands fell, when he had given into the darkness. He saw the three apparitions one more time, all seeming to call out for help, before the island was suddenly consumed by the endless abyss and he woke with a start.

Sora, of course, had seemed fine when Riku saw him once he’d awoken, wide awake and wearing a silly party hat while eating cake with Donald and Goofy. Worn out, yes, but fine overall. Still, he had a nagging feeling at the time that something had gone wrong in Sora’s dream, but the brunette was just confused when Riku brought it up with him. Then, he left for the Sleeping Realm and never came back.

This night, however, the dream went about just a tad bit differently.

When the island fell to darkness and Riku was just floating within the abyss, instead of waking up he seemed to sink down farther, his breathing became labored like he was drowning. He remembered something similar happening a few days ago when he was in the Realm of Darkness, when his old keyblade broke after being attacked by the Demon Tide. That time a voice had called out to him and saved him from falling even further. This time…?

There. Somewhere in the abyss. There was a voice calling out to him again. He forced his eyes open and looked around. Above him was a dim light which was quickly overtaken by an even brighter light from beneath him. He turned to see what it was, his eyes growing wide.

Below him, in the abyss, was a great, stained-glass platform bearing Sora’s image. It was Sora’s Station of Awakening, his heart. He remembered seeing it when he dived into Sora to save him when he couldn’t wake up, when he fought the armored apparition before diving further into his dreams. But something seemed different this time. While the glass platform continued to give off its own light, it seemed much dimmer. Darker…

Riku safely landed on the platform and looked around. Why was he here when he was dreaming? It would make more sense that he would be in his own heart, so why was he in Sora’s?

Then, he heard the voice again, but this time it started to sound clearer. Was that…?

“Sora?” Riku called out, his ears straining as he listened for the voice again.

R i k u . . .

“Sora! Where are you?” Riku called out again, now able to hear his name being called back to him. That was definitely Sora’s voice.

R i k u , I m s c a r e d . . .

“Don’t worry, Sora!” Riku continued to call out to his friend as he looked around the Station, hoping to see something– anything– to indicate where Sora could be. “I’ll find you! Just tell me where to start looking for you!”

S t a y a w a y , p l e a s e . . .

“Huh?” Riku stopped somewhere at the center of the platform, confused by the statement. It also seemed like Sora’s voice was getting closer. “Why? Are you in danger? Let me help you!”

I d o n ‘ t w a n t t o h u r t y o u …

At those words Riku felt a cold chill come across his body. He looked down and saw dark tendrils reach up from the sides of the platform and crisscross their way to the center where he stood. Suddenly, what felt like a strong gust of wind launched him off the platform, back to the surface. As he was being pulled away and he felt himself begin to awaken, he was sure he saw Sora watching him from the platform as it was consumed by darkness…

“SORA!!!”

Riku shot up in his bed, covered in a cold sweat, panting heavily. He was back in his room at the Mysterious Town.

“Riku! Are you okay?”

Riku turned and saw Mickey watching him from his bedside with a worried look on his face. Donald and Goofy were also there, their eyes full of worry and sadness. Based on those looks and the fact that it was only the two of them, their search had been a failure.

“Riku?” Mickey repeated himself, stepping back so that the teen could sit up in his bed properly. “You were having a nightmare, or something. You kept calling Sora’s name. Is everything alright?”

“I don’t think so,” Riku mumbled, grabbing his boots and slipping them on. “I need to talk to Master Yen Sid.”

===

Not long after, Riku was standing before Master Yen Sid at his desk, joined also by Mickey, Donald and Goofy. He told the retired master about his dream, the elderly sorcerer stroking his beard in thought as he listened to him.

“Gwarsh, I hope Sora’s alright,” Goofy said with worry.

“Of course he isn’t!” Donald proclaimed, eyes narrowed in a glare as he stamped a webbed foot, but deep down he was also worried for his friend. “He’s only a half-pint who needs our help! Riku’s dream only proves it!”

“But with little to no idea where he is, even with Riku’s dream, there is not much we can do,” Master Yen Sid said, looking over the four of them. “Donald and Goofy have both traveled to all the previous worlds Sora has visited in the past with no luck, and, even while searching the Realm of Darkness for Aqua, nothing was learned.” The sorcerer closed his eyes as he crossed his arms, Mickey shaking his head in agreement. Even Yen Sid, one of the best former keyblade masters, was at a loss for what they could do.

Riku glared down at the floor, his hands clenched tight enough that his nails nearly cut through skin. He remembered how scared and lost Sora’s voice sounded in his dream, how his Station was covered in darkness, the cold chill of it remaining with him even once he woke. It was a darkness he had not felt in a long time and it scared him.

“I need to go look for him,” Riku declared as he looked up at Master Yen Sid.

“Riku—” Mickey started as he looked up at his friend in worry, the teen returning his gaze with one of determination.

“I know we promised to go look for Aqua together. I wanted to before, to thank her for protecting me in the past, but Sora needs me!” He placed a hand over his heart, feeling it twinge in pain. “He recklessly followed after me when I fell to darkness, refusing to give up on me. And I’ve already chased after him back in Castle Oblivion, when Organization XIII tried to recreate Kingdom Hearts, and again through his dreams. I’ve nearly lost him in the Sleeping Realms and when he was trapped in his nightmare, and I’m not going to risk losing him again just because he’s pushing me away!” Everyone went quiet as they watched Riku turn to Yen Sid. “Master, please give me permission to go look for him. I know this wasn’t my original mission, but if I need to give up my title as Master to find Sora, then I will.” At those words Mickey, Donald, and Goofy all gawked at him as Yen Sid gave him a small nod, his stern gaze remaining.

“I will not go that far,” he said calmly as all eyes focused on him. “It is quite obvious that your heart knows what is best. If you believe that this will be the way for you to find Sora, then I say follow your heart. Let it guide you on the right path to save your friend.” Riku felt a weight lift off his shoulders when the old master said that.

“Thank you, Master,” he said, bowing to him before he quickly left the room.

He had a long journey he needed to prepare for.

===

“I want to go with you!” Kairi exclaimed through the gummiphone. Riku gave her a sad smile as he dropped the duffel he had packed onto the ground next to him, once again taking a seat on the steps to the Mysterious Tower. Donald and Goofy both offered to let him use their gummiship on his journey and were getting it ready for him, so he had some time to call Kairi to get her up to date on the situation.

“You still have training to complete,” he reminded her, making the redhead puff her cheeks in anger. “Once your training is complete you can join me then, you and Lea, if he wants to.”

“But he’s much closer to finishing it than I am!” she complained. “Even in this amazing place where time flows differently, it just seems like he’s much farther along than me!”

“Well, he did start training before you did, even though his keyblade skills are still lacking.” He looked around in the background of the screen, scanning the area Kairi was staying in. It looked like she was taking a break in a small wooden hut, most likely a resting place Merlin set up for her and Lea. “Where is he, anyway?”

“He wandered off some time ago, saying he wanted to be alone,” Kairi said with a frown. “Ever since Sora disappeared he’s been more agitated. I think he’s worried about Roxas, since he’s inside Sora’s heart. But… I also think he’s blaming himself a little that he’s gone.”

“Why do you say that?”

“Well, you said he was the one who showed up to save Sora when Master Xehanort tried to take over his body. What if he was too late?”

Riku flinched slightly at the implication. It was a possibility: there had been a sudden cloud of smoke just as the piece of Xehanort’s heart reached Sora, then, a second later, Lea was there with a protective arm around the unconscious teen. Who was to say that Sora was…?

“No, I’m sure that’s not the case,” Riku denied with a small smile to mask his worry. “You remember how Sora was when he woke up and before he left. Did that seem like someone who was possessed by darkness?”

“You do have a point…” Kairi muttered, not entirely convinced, but, at least she seemed less tense now. “Just… please remember to call me every day, whether you have news or not!” Riku chuckled at her words.

“Of course, I will,” he said softly, making Kairi smile. “And you better not slack off in your training if you want to help me out in my search.”

“You got it, Master Riku!” she said with a bright smile, giving him a salute before she ended the call, the teen’s phone screen going black. With a heavy sigh, he slipped the phone into his pocket, looking up at the star filled sky.

“About ready to go?”

Riku turned around and saw Mickey coming down the steps, joining him at the bottom.

“Just about,” he replied, turning to check up on Donald and Goofy. They were just at the edge of the world, checking over the gummiship. “Once they give me the okay, I’ll be off. Sorry I’m making you look for Aqua on your own.”

“It’s no biggie,” Mickey said with a sad smile. “She’s still lost in the Realm of Darkness because I never came back for her after I first found her a year ago. It’s really my responsibility that I find her, as it is yours to find Sora, because of your unbreakable connection.” Riku gave the mouse a soft smile as he stood up, stretching his arms. “But before you go, Master Yen Sid wanted me to give you this.” Mickey then pulled out a star shaped pin made of metal and sparkling blue glass.

“What’s this for?” Riku asked as he examined the pin. He could sense a small amount of magic radiating from it.

“It’s a special charm made for world travelers like us,” Mickey said. “Remember how Sora traveled to the different worlds and his appearance changed depending on the world?” Riku nodded at that, remembering some of the stories Sora told him, and how his appearance changed when he was in that computer world with Sam and Kora in the Sleeping Realms. “Well, as you know, there are many worlds out there that don’t know that other worlds exist, and have been at peace because we maintain the world order. With this magic pin, your appearance will change depending on the world you visit.”

“Got it,” Riku said with a nod as he attached the pin to his jacket, so as to not forget about it later.

“We’re done!” Goofy called out. Riku and Mickey both turned to see the guard captain and court magician joining them at the tower, Donald giving an annoyed huff.

“Thank you, guys,” Riku said, nodding to Donald and Goofy, who both smiled at him.

“Not a problem,” Donald exclaimed. “Just bring Sora back before he gets himself into trouble!” Everyone let out a chuckle at that, knowing how the brunette tended to act when alone and with no direction.

“Just be careful, Riku,” Mickey said with a bright smile. “And remember: let your heart be your guiding key.”

“I will.”

And not too long after, Riku was in the gummiship and taking off…

===

… But now he sat in the pilot seat, arms crossed as he thought long and hard as the gummiship floated there in the lanes between. 

He didn’t know where he should start looking for Sora.

Riku thought about it and realized that he probably should have talked it over more with Mickey and maybe even Donald and Goofy, who had both spent the better part of the last year by Sora’s side and would know what to do. But, Riku was so desperate to look for his friend that he just impulsively declared that he would be the one to look for him and didn’t slow down from there. That was definitely something Sora would do, the thought of it making the silver haired teen chuckle. Maybe he just needed to think like Sora, who would impulsively follow his heart…?

“Let my heart be my guiding key,” Riku said to himself, repeating what Mickey said to him when he left.

After a moment, Riku looked up at the starry sky in front of him with a smile, summoned Braveheart, and opened a gate. He was going to find Sora, and he was going to bring him home.


	2. Twilight Town pt1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Chapters from now on will be updated every Friday, unless I get a lot of writing done over the weekend. Also if this fix gets enough likes, I might increase the number of updates to twice a week.
> 
> Credit to cosmotomaton for beta reading and being a literal godsend!

** Twilight Town pt1 **

  
  


It wasn’t long before Riku found himself in Twilight Town, walking along the slanted road that led to the central neighborhood, the tram slowly trailing by. It had been a long time since he last came to the peaceful world. Not since he had been looking for Roxas so that Ansem the Wise could fix Sora, back when he was sleeping in his pod. Was that why his heart was drawn to this world? He looked around the square and noticed a few things were different, namely that it seemed to be bustling with more activity, and there was even a small bistro in one corner that had been empty before.

However, the peace was short lived as he started hearing people screaming from a nearby alley. Riku followed the screams and saw the cause for terror.

“Nobodies!” he shouted as he summoned Braveheart and took out a Dusk before it could attack a woman cowering in fear. “Everyone, get inside and lock your doors!” he called out to the people as they ran away. He quickly took out the Dusks and the few Snipers that appeared in the neighborhood. There were quite a few of them– 3 more seeming to spawn when he would take one out– but, eventually, they stopped spawning, giving Riku some time to rest.

However, even that rest did not last long.

“Where did they come from?!” someone shouted from another alley. Riku didn’t need to follow the voice as, once he turned around, he saw three teenagers running in his general direction. And, right on their tails was a massive Demon Tide, larger than the one he’d fought in the Dark Realm.

“Go! Get someplace safe!” Riku shouted at them as he raised his keyblade as the teens ran past him, shouting their thanks. The Tide started to swirl around him in an intimidating manner, making Riku raise his guard even more. He had trouble dealing with the Tide in the Dark Realm even with Mickey’s help, and that one was much smaller than this one. Even so, he couldn’t back down.

“I’m a keyblade master, and I have to save Sora!” he shouted as he charged at the Demon Tide at the same time it came at him.

===

Soon after the fight began Riku was already at his wits end, the Tide showed no signs of slowing down. He had just used up his last Hi-Potion and Ether and he could feel his magic was weak. He may be able to get another Dark Thundara off, but if he missed and the Tide came at him again, he would definitely lose.

Riku dodged when the Tide came at him, but he missed when it phased through the ground and came at him again from underneath him. He was just barely able to dodge again, but he was still hit pretty hard, making him roll across the hard pavement with a cry of pain. Riku looked up and saw the Tide coming for him for a third time. He wasn’t going to make it…

Just then a Fira spell came out of nowhere, hitting the Tide head on, causing it to erupt into the smaller Shadow Heartless. Riku struggled to his knees as he watched the Shadows mill about in a daze, wondering where the attack came from.

“Did you really think you could take that thing all on your own?” a voice called to him from above. Riku looked up just as a tall redhead jumped off a nearby roof and landed next to him, a keyblade made of flames hanging over his shoulder.

“Lea?!” Riku was stunned to see the young man here and not training with Kairi. “What are you doing here?!”

“Oh, now you manage to get my name right,” he said sarcastically, tossing a green vial to Riku with one hand while he swung Flame Liberator in a huge arch with the other, taking out several Shadows around them. Riku broke the vial, realizing it was an Elixir as he felt his health and magic replenish. “Anyway, let’s take out these Heartless and then I’ll give you the deets!”

Riku nodded as he got up and together, they charged at the Heartless before the Demon Tide reformed.

===

After fighting the amalgamation of Heartless for a bit longer, it suddenly flew up into the sky and away from the town, disappearing into the distance. With the threat gone, Riku and Lea let out sighs of relief as they dismissed their keyblades.

“Thanks for the help,” Riku said as he visibly relaxed, turning to Lea to size him up. He was dressed in the new clothes Master Yen Sid had made for him. “Finally decided to ditch your old coat?”

“Actually, that’s the weird thing,” Lea said with a chuckle as he looked over his outfit. “My coat went missing the other day. I think Kairi snuck off with it and tossed it out for me. She’s been trying to get me out of it for a while now.”

“Speaking of,” Riku said with a curious look. “Why are you here? Don’t you still have training?”

“Yeah, about that…” Lea rubbed the back of his neck in a seemingly nervous manner, looking everywhere except at Riku. “Kairi must have told you before, but I just… needed some time to myself. Roxas and I used to come to Twilight Town, before he went missing, to eat sea salt ice cream up on the clock tower after our missions, and I just felt like I needed to be here for some reason, even though it brings back memories I don’t want to remember just yet…”

“Sorry,” Riku said with a frown, looking down at his boots. “It’s my fault that Roxas was separated from you.”

“True, but you did it to save Sora, and he’s pretty important and all…” Lea mumbled. The air quickly filled with nervous tension between them. This was the longest the two of them have been alone together with no one else there to butt in on their conversation.

“Who are you guys?”

Riku looked up when he heard the new voice and saw the three teens who ran past him earlier. They were a tall boy with wavy blonde hair, a slightly shorter boy with dark hair and a bandana around his neck, and a brunette girl. As they approached them Lea turned to them as well and visibly flinched when all three of them gasped, the blonde boy pointing at him.

“Hey! You’re the guy who kidnapped Kairi!”

“You did what?” Riku asked the redhead in mild shock. 

“Th-that was a long time ago, back when I was still ‘Axel’! A-and I was following orders!” The teens didn’t seem convinced as they got into defensive poses. Riku chuckled as he got between them and Lea before any fights started.

“It’s alright,” he said, raising his hands as a sign of peace. “We’re friends of Kairi.”

The brunette girl looked between Riku and Lea before she lost some of her tension. “Are you also friends of Sora?”

“You know him, too?” Riku asked them with a smile, not at all surprised that they knew Sora as well. The brunette girl also returned his smile with one of her own.

“Yeah. Sora has saved us before many times with a key shaped weapon similar to yours. And any friend of Sora’s must be good.” She stepped forward as the two boys watched her curiously. “My name is Olette. Thank you for saving us.”

“My name’s Riku, and that’s Lea,” Riku said as he pointed at the redhead with a thumb, the taller boy giving them a nervous wave. The other two boys looked at each other before they, too, visibly relaxed and stepped forward.

“I’m Pence,” the bandana boy said with a cheeky smile.

“And I’m Hayner,” the blonde boy said, reaching a hand out to Riku, who gave it a shake. “I’ve never seen a monster like that before. What was that?”

“It’s a Demon Tide, a more powerful Heartless,” Riku said with a frown as he looked over the three of them. “You’ve probably seen them around before.”

“Yeah, but most of the time it’s those white slithery things,” Hayner grumbled as he crossed his arms.

“Nobodies,” Lea added with a sigh as he stepped forward. “They are just as dangerous as the Heartless, so watch out for them.” The teens nodded in agreement.

“I’m actually here on a mission relating to Sora,” Riku said to them. This would be much easier, knowing that there were people in this world who knew Sora personally. “Something happened to him and now he’s missing. Have you seen him anywhere or heard anything from him lately?” Hayner, Pence, and Olette all exchanged a look before anyone spoke up.

“Well, there was that one guy…” Pence said as he rubbed his chin in thought.

“But he was wearing a black coat…” Olette added.

“A black coat?” Riku and Lea repeated at the same time, catching their attention.

“It was hard to tell because they had their hood up,” Hayner added. “We were chilling in the back alley, near the entrance to the woods, when we saw someone who looked about our age heading that way. And I don’t know why, but I was sure I knew them from around…”

“And there were these,” Pence said, digging around in his pockets where he pulled out two photographs. Both looked the same, depicting the three of them in front of a tall iron gate, but one of them…

“Roxas!” Lea gasped when he saw his blonde friend in one of the photos. He was standing at the back of the photo next to Hayner with a big smile on his face.

“You know him?” Olette asked the redhead curiously, looking between him and the photo.

“Yeah, he’s my best friend. Technically he’s also missing and we kinda need Sora’s help to find him.”

“This photo must be from the other Twilight Town…” Riku mumbled as he looked over the photo with Roxas.

“Oh, Sora told us about it after we first met,” Pence mentioned as he put away their own photo. “Something about how there was a data version of Twilight Town and that we were in it.”

“Where did you find this?” Riku asked the three of them.

“It was dropped by the person in the coat,” Pence said as he dug around his pockets some more before he pulled out something on a silver chain. “And this, too.” When Riku saw the other item, he gasped in shock.

“That’s Sora’s!” he exclaimed as he took the crown pendant. All of the children on the island – including Riku and Kairi – had pitched in some of their allowance to buy it for Sora as a birthday gift when he turned thirteen, and he had proclaimed that he would never take it off.

“And there was one more weird thing,” Hayner said as he rubbed his chin. “The guy in the coat had a woman with him. She looked unconscious and hurt, so we tried to follow them and see if they needed help when that Heartless monster showed up and chased us back here. If they were trying to take shelter somewhere in the woods they could be at the haunted mansion.” Riku nodded when he eventually tore his eyes away from the pendant.

“I’ll head out there to look for them,” he told the three of them. “For now, you should probably stay in town where it’s safer.” He looked around the square and saw that people had started to leave their homes, feeling that the danger was finally gone. “Lea, do you mind staying with them?” Riku asked when he turned to the redhead.

“Uh, I guess…?” Lea said, rubbing the back of his head.

“Yeah, you can hang out with us at the bistro!” Olette said with a smile, pointing to the outdoor dining area. “The food there is amazing!” 

“You can also tell us a bit about Roxas,” Hayner added as he held up the photo of the blonde. “He seems like a cool guy, and I don’t know why but I feel like I know him even though we never met outside of the data Twilight Town.” Lea looked over the three teens before he eventually smiled.

“Aw, why not!” he exclaimed as he stretched his arms out. “This gives me a chance to take a proper break!” Riku shook his head as he let out a huff, smiling slightly.

“I’ll be back soon,” he told them as he slipped Sora’s pendant into his pocket. “Just call me if anything happens.”

After giving his goodbyes, he left for the forest.

===

While it was annoying that the only way into the forest now was through the sewers, at least he was in and out of them fairly quick. After a short walk, a few more fights with some Heartless, then saving a rat being attacked by some Heartless and even forced to help it collect some fruit, Riku found himself at the entrance to the haunted mansion. He looked over the old, abandoned mansion in slight awe. It still gave off a creepy feeling, most likely the reason why everyone thought it was haunted, when in reality Riku knew that it was like that to hide the lab in the basement. He looked over the front when his eyes landed on the window on the second floor, the one with the white curtains that Naminé stayed in while she fixed Sora’s memories.

Riku then noticed the curtains move slightly. He squinted at them hard. Was someone standing near the window…?

“Riku?” 

The silver haired teen nearly jumped out of his skin as he spun on whoever grabbed his shoulder, summoning Braveheart. Luckily, he stopped himself in time when he saw that it was just Lea, the other teens standing behind him. They all jumped back in shock from his reaction.

“What are you all doing here?” he demanded with a glare, dismissing Braveheart when he turned to them. “You guys said you would stay in the town!”

“Sorry, it’s my fault,” Lea said with a forced chuckle, wiping the sweat from his brown. “We were just chatting at the bistro when I felt this need to be here at the mansion.” He placed a hand over his heart as he looked down at the ground in confusion. “I don’t know how to explain it. Just that I had to be here…”

“Yeah, and then he just took off!” Hayner exclaimed with a frustrated huff. “Without a word! Just got up and booked it for the woods! We were all confused and followed him to see what was up.” Pence and Olette both nodded in agreement. Riku crossed his arms in thought.

“Lea,” the teen said, getting the redhead’s attention. “Didn’t you say something similar earlier? That you felt it in your heart to come to Twilight Town, even though you didn’t initially want to?”

“Now that you mention it…” Lea said in slight realization, rubbing his chin curiously.

‘ _ Just like how my heart led me here in the first place… _ ’ Riku thought to himself. He had followed his heart, found himself in Twilight Town, and now there was a black coat who had a photo of Roxas and Sora’s pendent on them. And now Lea was there for similar reasons. Could it be that…?

“K-keeeeey… b-blaaaaade…”

Riku felt a sudden chill run up his spine when he heard those words and the sudden onslaught of dark energy around him. Lea must have also felt it as he flinched and turned on the spot, looking for the source of the voice. Hayner, Pence, and Olette just stared at the two in confusion. That was when three pools of darkness appeared in the ground near the gate of the mansion, and out of those pools, three Heartless emerged.

But, these Heartless were different, Riku noticed, as he and Lea got between the enemy and the other teens, who all gasped in fear. These Heartless had humanoid shapes, standing on two legs at just under 5 feet in height, wearing black shoes, shorts, and large clawed gloves stained red at the tips. They each also had bat wings on their backs and a black hat with antenna on top, partially concealing black faces that had the traditional soulless yellow eyes and red mouths full of sharp teeth. They were each slightly hunched over, swaying in place as they clawed at the ground, their eyes focused on the wielders as they summoned their respective keyblades.

“What kind of Heartless are these?” Lea asked as he got into a defensive position. He’d mostly encountered Shadow Heartless and the ones he used to go hunting with Roxas back in the Organization, but never these types.

“I don’t know,” Riku admitted as he raised Braveheart, ready to strike when needed. “I’ve never seen anything like th—”

“…ku…”

The lot of them went silent in shock when one of the Heartless opened its mouth and words came out.

“… Ri… ku…”

“… Ax… el…”

“Wait, did those things just--?” Lea gasped in shock, his stance wavering. One of the Heartless had said his old Organization name, the one he’d been trying to get everyone to stop calling him.

Suddenly, the Heartless began to let out small choking, coughing-like sounds which quickly turned into cackles. Then, they let out screeches as they launched at the two wielders. 

“Stay back!” Riku told the teens standing behind them as he quickly Reflected the Heartless away from them, giving Lea a chance to get his composure back so he could charge at them, knocking them further back. “Get inside the mansion! We’ll join you when we get rid of these!”

“R-right!” the three teens said in union as they quickly pulled open the double doors and got inside the mansion. When he heard the doors click shut, Riku turned around and joined Lea in the fight.

===

However, the fight was short-lived when, not long after it began, the Heartless disappeared within a dark corridor, their cackles still echoing in the air until their dark presence was gone completely. Riku and Lea entered the mansion, slumping against the big wooden doors as they panted for breath. If they thought the Demon Tide in Twilight Town was difficult, these new Heartless were ten times worse.

“I think I would prefer fighting old man Xehanort one-on-one than fight those things again!” Lea exclaimed as he pulled out his last two Elixirs, giving one to Riku as he used one on himself. Riku nodded with agreement, feeling his energy return as the Elixir disintegrated in his hand. “But you heard those things talk, too, right? I’m sure one of them said ‘Axel’…”

“Yeah…” Riku mumbled as he straightened out, crossing his arms as he contemplated what those things could have been. He’d never encountered such powerful Heartless before outside of a Demon Tide, but those were amalgamations of Heartless, not a single being. Especially Heartless that could talk, not including Seeker of Darkness Ansem.

“Are you guys okay?” Olette asked them in worry. She was with Hayner waiting for them in the main foyer, sitting on one of the staircases leading up to the second floor. Pence entered the foyer from the back.

“Well, we’re still alive at least,” Lea said in a sarcastic manner as he popped his fighting arm, his muscles no longer sore from all the fighting he’d done today.

“While we were waiting for you guys, I had a quick look around,” Pence said as he came forward. “The computer in the basement still works, but it’s locked behind some kind of firewall or something. I thought we could try and access the other Twilight Town from it.”

“Let’s go take a look,” Riku said with a nod, the lot of them heading for the basement.

===

Thankfully, he didn’t have to do much after they found the computer as Ienzo called him on his gummiphone not long after, saying that he’d picked up readings on his side in Radiant Garden that someone was trying to access Ansem the Wise’s data. After Pence talked it over with the scientist, they decided to try and hook the two computers up digitally so that they could analyze the data faster. Yeah, Riku may want to come off as the more mature and knowledgeable individual among his friends on the islands – especially Sora – but while figuring out the basics on how a phone or a gummiship or even the basics of a computer work, the level of what Ienzo was going for was just a little out of the teenager’s league. 

Riku had propped up his phone on the desk so Pence and Ienzo could see each other and talk as they connected the systems, the young scientist stating that it might take a while. The rest of them just milled about in the computer room while Pence typed away and Ienzo gave him directions.

“I’m going to walk around the mansion a bit to make sure there are no more Heartless or Nobodies,” Riku said as he walked out of the room, everyone else giving him a wave of acknowledgement. In reality, Riku wanted to be alone with his thoughts and not have the others pester him to make sure he was okay. He soon found himself standing in the foyer again, taking a seat on one of the steps with a sigh. He pulled out the crown pendant from his pocket and looked it over, his thumb tracing the edges. “Where are you, Sora?”

That was when he heard something from upstairs, causing the teen to look behind him curiously. It almost sounded like someone humming. He then remembered vaguely seeing someone standing in the white room earlier, but had dismissed it thinking it was just the wind causing the curtains to flap about. Could someone be up there?

The silver haired teen stood up and quietly made his way up the steps and down the hallway, not wanting to spook whoever was up here. He stopped when he reached the door to the white room, leaning against the door to listen for anyone who might be in there. He could hear something shuffling around, and could more clearly hear someone humming a tune. Slowly, Riku placed a hand on the door handle, took a few deep breaths, then quickly threw the door open, closing it just as quickly once he was inside.

There, sitting on the large windowsill, was someone in a black coat. They gasped when Riku closed the door, pulling the hood tightly over their face so that he couldn’t see them. Riku noticed that the coat seemed a bit large on them by how baggy it was and how it seemed to cover them up entirely. Not far away, propped against the wall, was a girl with short blue hair. She appeared to be sleeping, but otherwise okay.

“Listen, I don’t want to hurt you,” Riku said calmly as he raised his hands as a sign of good faith. Normally he would instantly pull out his keyblade and start demanding answers or attack anyone in a black coat, but something stopped him, telling him to take it slow and easy. He opened one of his hands to show Sora’s pendant was still there. “You had dropped this earlier. You recognize it?”

The black coat seemed to flinch slightly at the mention of the pendant, slowly slipping off the windowsill so they were standing. Riku noticed that they had their coat zipped up completely so that he couldn’t see any part of them, the bottom on the coat dragging on the ground. He kept an eye on them to make sure they weren’t going to attack him or try to run. They stayed quiet as Riku took small, baby steps towards them, appearing to grow more agitated and nervous as the seconds ticked by.

“Is this yours?” Riku tried asking them to see what kind of response they would give him. They only looked away as the teen now stood just a few feet away from them. Just then, the black coat made a quick dash for the door, but Riku had anticipated this and grabbed their arm, the force strong enough for them to fall against the wall, giving a small cry of shock as their hood fell down. When Riku saw their face, he let out a gasp.

“Sora!”


	3. Twilight Town pt2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Posting this from my iPad as I’m on vacation, visiting my grandparents right now. Been excited to posts this, but I’m trying to keep to a schedule, and I don’t want to post these chapters too quickly.
> 
> Credit to cosmotomaton for beta reading and putting up with my wacky writing habits!

**Twilight Town pt2**

  
  
  


“Sora!”

Just as Riku had suspected– had feared, more like– it was Sora in the coat. But, when he got a better look of the younger teens face, he felt his heart jump up into his throat. Not only did his skin look paler than normal with bags under his eyes like he hadn’t slept in days, a few strands of his chocolate brown hair had turned a silver white and there were flecks of amber gold in his right eye.

“What happened to you, Sora?” Riku asked his friend as his heart filled with dread. Sora tried to pull away and pull up his hood, but Riku refused to let go of his arms, holding on tight enough that he couldn’t get away but not tight enough to hurt him.

“Why didn’t you stay away?” Sora asked him in a sad rough voice, like he hadn’t spoken in days. His eyes began to waver slightly and grow misty with unshed tears.

“There’s no way I would leave you alone!” Riku exclaimed as he tried to pull Sora into a hug, but stopped when the brunette flinched, his hesitation just enough for him to pull away. He took a few steps back from the keyblade wielder, but didn’t bother to pull up his hood as he glared at him. “Sora, just come with me. I’ll take you back to Master Yen Sid. I’m sure he can fix this.”

“There’s nothing he can do,” Sora said in a defeated voice as he looked away from his friend. “Besides, I don’t want to hurt you. Or Kairi or Axel. Donald, Goofy, the king…” Sora then gripped his head tightly as he moaned in pain.

“What’s wrong?” Riku asked him worriedly, taking a few steps towards him.

“ _His_ _voice_ ,” Sora gasped as he pulled at his hair, shaking his head roughly. “I hear it every day, ever since I woke up, I hear _him_ calling for me… But I won’t! I won’t let _him_ control me!” By his tone of voice, Riku could tell who Sora was referring to.

“Then, let me take you someplace safe, where he can’t reach you!” Riku said as he reached out to Sora to take his hand.

“I said stay BACK!” Sora shouted as he swiped at the outstretched hand, his own encased in Dark Fire. Riku pulled back his hand in shock and pain, feeling the burn of the flames on his hand. He examined the injury and determined that it was minor, nothing a simple Potion couldn’t fix later. When he heard a gasp, he looked up and felt his heart nearly drop to his stomach when he saw his friend. Sora had his mouth covered in shock, hands shaking and eyes full of tears. “I-I told you to stay away!” he gasped, choking on his words as he held back his tears. “I don’t want to hurt you!”

“Riku?”

Both Riku and Sora looked to the door when they heard Lea’s voice in the hallway, followed by multiple footsteps. Riku quickly turned his gaze to Sora, just in time to see him pull his hood up and make a run for a dark corridor that had manifested.

“Sora!” Riku shouted, reaching out to his friend as he disappeared, the door opening just as the portal disappeared in a cloud of black smoke.

“What happened?” Lea asked Riku as he and the others entered the room. “Was Sora here?”

Riku couldn’t say anything, his hand still outstretched to a dark corridor long gone. After a moment he punched the wall in anger.

“Damnit!” the silver haired teen shouted, his voice full of anger and despair, his hit strong enough to knock a few of Naminé’s old drawings off the wall and leave a crack in the plaster.

“I… think she’s alright?” Pence said as he pointed at the unconscious woman, Olette kneeling down next to her to check her for injuries.

“Yeah, I think she’s just asleep,” the brunette girl said, letting out a sigh of relief. At the mention of the woman, Riku turned to look at her, finally getting a good look. She was tall and thin with short blue hair, a dark blue leather bodice, black shorts with a ruffled half skirt, and gray bell sleeves. She also had two pink belts crossing on her chest with a metal emblem holding them together. Something about her seemed familiar, not that he’d seen her before but had her described to him.

“Wait…” Lea mumbled as he kneeled down next to her, examining her. His eyes were mostly drawn to the emblem on her chest before they grew with shock. “I recognize that emblem!” he exclaimed, gaining Riku’s attention. “Ventus had one just like it!”

“One of the missing wielders?” Riku said more as a statement as he knelt down next to the woman, who seemed to be waking up due to all the noise. Pretty soon her eyes slowly opened, revealing a pair of sparkling ocean blue eyes.

“Aqua?”

===

When Riku realized that the woman was Aqua, the missing keyblade master he and Mickey had been searching for, the teenager immediately contacted the king to tell him about the news. While he was on the phone, Lea helped support Aqua as they left for the gummiship to take her to Master Yen Sid’s tower, as she was still physically weak from whatever had happened to her. Hayner, Pence, and Olette all offered to help them by keeping an eye out at the mansion, in case they found any information on Sora, Roxas, or anything else, then bid the three keyblade wielders goodbye as they left the world.

Aqua seemed to be in shock as Riku did his best to explain to her what had been going on, how she wasn’t in the realm of darkness, how he and Mickey had been looking for her, and so on. But, the onslaught of information seemed to give her a headache, so he let her rest while he drove the ship to the Mysterious Tower.

When they landed, everyone was there outside the tower to welcome her back, even Yen Sid and Kairi, who had been given a break from training for the day after Riku called her and told her what happened. Once everyone was inside the tower, standing before Yen Sid at his desk, the information finally began to sink in for Aqua.

“So, I really am back,” she said in disbelief, her eyes still red from the tears she had been shedding when Mickey and the others had pulled her into a big group hug. She couldn’t help but continue to smile even though her cheeks hurt so much already. “What happened was real…”

“But how did you manage to make it back?” Riku asked her curiously. “Mickey and I had been searching the Realm of Darkness for days, and while we could sense your presence, you were nowhere in sight.”

“From what I can gather, time and even reality seem to bend in mysterious ways in the Realm of Darkness,” Aqua contemplated as she crossed her arms in thought, brows knitted together. “That would explain why I physically stayed the same age even though 10 years had passed in the Realm of Light. It could have been possible that the three of us all stood together in the same place at separate times, but we could still feel our residual energies.”

“So, how did you manage to escape?” Kairi asked the woman with a tilt of her head, making the blue haired woman smile. It still warmed her heart to know that the girl she saved 10 years ago from the Unversed in Radiant Garden was standing before her as a strong young woman, and a keyblade wielder, to boot.

“That is the mysterious part,” she said as she looked over the whole group, waiting for her story. “I don’t remember everything that had happened, but from what I do remember…”

***

Aqua stood between Ansem the Wise and the Xehanort clone that stole her friend’s face. She was not going to let him hurt anyone anymore.

“A lost master,” Xehanort remarked with a smirk as he examined Aqua. “Where is your keyblade?”

“I don’t need it to beat you!” Aqua shouted as she charged at him. She jumped into the air and was ready to hit him with a flying kick when something grabbed her. The young woman shouted in pain when Xehanort’s guardian appeared and had a tight grip on her leg, holding her high in the air upside down.

“Let her go!” Ansem the Wise shouted, his eyes full of worry. “I’ll go with you. Just don’t—”

Just then, a spinning blade engulfed in light came right for the guardian, causing it to drop Aqua to dodge the attack, allowing her to get a safe distance away. Aqua watched in shock as the light flew through the air and returned to the hands of a fourth person she never noticed before, turning into a keyblade with a gold hilt and silver blade similar to Mickey’s keyblade. Whoever they were, they also wore a black coat with their hood up to conceal their face, the coat so long that it seemed to drag on the ground as they approached the group, leaving a trail in the black sand in their wake. Xehanort seemed confused until his confusion turned into a glare.

“You!” he growled as dark fire danced on his fingertips, his guardian hovering behind him. The new person stopped not too far away, crouching down into a fighting position as they gripped their keyblade tightly.

“If you are going to fight someone, make it me,” they declared to him in a rough voice. Aqua could tell from the voice that they were male and on the younger side, maybe the same age as Ven. Xehanort seemed to contemplate taking on the newcomer until his glare turned into a smirk.

“I could do so,” he stated as he turned to look to Ansem the Wise, then to Aqua. “But there is much that must be done before the final battle. So why don’t I keep you busy until you decide to return to us.” Then, before anyone had time to acknowledge what was going on, the guardian flew through the air and attacked Aqua head on with an intense blast, causing her to cry out in pain as she was sent sailing through the air, landing in the waters of the Dark Margin.

“AQUA!” a voice called out to her as she began to sink into the dark waters. For just a split second, she thought she heard Ven’s voice.

As she was sinking down, the wound on her chest began to emit a dark energy that slowly consumed her. She then felt a warm hand grab her own just as she lost consciousness.

***

“Then, after that, I woke up in that white room, with you boys there,” Aqua said, finishing her story as she looked to Riku and Lea, letting the story sink in as the room went quiet.

“Gwarsh, that must have been Sora,” Goofy said with a smile, trying hard to mask his worry and see this in a brighter light. “He’s the only one able to use that keyblade, and he would do anything to help a friend.”

“But what about your injury?” Mickey asked her curiously. “When Xehanort’s guardian attacked you, it hit you with an attack imbued with the power of darkness, corrupting you.”

“I don’t know,” Aqua admitted as she looked over herself. “I don’t feel in pain anywhere, and I don’t sense any darkness.”

“That was probably Sora as well,” Riku said, gaining everyone’s attention. “When he was spotted in Twilight Town with you, I was told that you looked injured, but when I found you at the mansion you appeared fine. Sora, on the other hand, wasn’t. He kept saying he could hear Xehanort’s voice, calling to him, ever since he woke up. It could be possible, but Sora might have absorbed your darkness to save you.”

“So, then he was…” Kairi started, but couldn’t bring herself to finish. The realization set in quickly as everyone went quiet, the air filling with tense dread.

“It’s my fault,” Lea said in frustration as his hands clenched tightly, turning the skin white. “I couldn’t reach him fast enough. Because I was too damned slow, Sora and Roxas are…”

“Not all hope is lost,” Yen Sid said, everyone turning to him as the master spoke. “Based on what Riku said and Aqua’s story, Sora may have a piece of Master Xehanort’s heart inside him, but he has retained enough of himself to not fully fall to darkness.” Yen Sid turned his gaze to Riku, who stood at attention. “It seems your original plan to follow your heart to find Sora has done more for our investigation than before. Continue on your original path and find him.”

“Yes, Master,” Riku said with a nod. He then sensed two other people approaching the desk.

“Let me come with you,” Lea said, surprising Riku and Kairi as they both looked up to the redhead. “It’s my fault Sora’s in this situation. And, technically, my heart led me to Twilight Town, and if I hadn't been there our newest master here would have been toast.” Lea only smirked when Riku glared at him, but the silver haired teen didn’t say anything, as it was technically true.

“I, too, wish to come on your journey,” Aqua said with her hand on her heart, causing everyone to look at her. “Sora saved me in the Realm of Darkness and pulled me back here. I need to repay him for saving me by saving him. Also, I need to search for my friend Terra. If Sora now has some connection to Xehanort, then maybe by looking for him I may also find Terra.” She then turned to look at Riku and Lea with an almost shy smile. “Unless, you think it’s best if I…”

“I would be honored if you came with us,” Riku said with a smile, the woman visibly relaxing at his words. Yen Sid nodded as a small smile appeared on his face.

“It seems you will not be going on this journey alone, Master Riku,” the old master said, the three new companions now standing at attention. “I give you three my blessing. Now, go, and may your hearts be your guiding key.”

===

“Aw, how come Lea can go along but I can’t?” Kairi complained as she followed Riku to the gummiship. Aqua and Lea were busy packing their things into the ship while Mickey helped Donald and Goofy get the ship ready with some upgrades.

“Because you still need to finish your training,” Riku said with a sigh and a smile as he turned to his friend. 

“But he’s not done with his training either!”

“But he has more experience dealing with the Heartless and Nobodies than you do,” Riku added, making Kairi pout. That was very much true, even though she has fought a few enemies before. “I promise I’ll keep you up-to-date on anything we learn. Just… believe in Sora. Everything always turns out good in the end when you do that.” Kairi’s gaze softened slightly at those words before she gave him a smile.

“I’ll put my faith into all of you,” she declared as she hugged Riku tightly, the older teen wrapping his arms around her. “Please… save Sora.”

“I will.”

===

“So, where do we go now, Master Riku?” Lea asked in a mocking tone, but the silver haired teen knew he didn’t intend it a negative way.

“Hmmm…” Riku thought long and hard, tapping a finger on the controls of the gummiship. Aqua was busy looking around the inside of the ship and out the windows at the surrounding space as they floated in the lane between in awe. She had told them before that when she traveled to different worlds, she would summon special armor and her keyblade would turn into a glider, allowing her to fly to the different worlds. But, you would always be at risk of being attacked by enemies with minimal coverage that way, so while using the gummiship was slower, at least it was safer, with just as amazing of a view.

“Just do it the same way you did before, when you went to Twilight Town,” Lea added, hands clasped together on the back of his head, drawing Aqua’s attention away from the ship and to the two boys. 

“All I did was follow my heart,” Riku stated as he continued to think. “But right now, it feels like my heart is pulling in different directions.” He looked back at the two of them with a frown. “Sorry, I guess I’m just still in shock.” Lea’s smirk turned into a frown as he leaned forward.

“Nah, it’s okay,” he said as he rubbed the back of his neck. “I think we are all still in shock, one way or another.”

“I have a suggestion,” Aqua said as she raised her hand sheepishly, drawing their attention to her. It was obvious that she was more used to taking charge, but knew she had to let Riku lead them due to his strong connection to Sora. “Before we left the tower, Mickey told me about how Donald and Goofy had been going to previous worlds Sora had been to, to see if he had returned to any of them. He told me they had been to every world aside from Twilight Town and one other world. Maybe you can start there?”

“It’s something at least,” Riku said with a half-smile. “What world was that?”

“Olympus Coliseum.”


	4. Olympus pt 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Now we are on to part 1 of the Olympus arc! I’m still keeping it to Friday only updates, but if I can get enough chapters done over the next few days and enough people are interested, I might update part 2 sooner as it’s already done.
> 
> Credit to cosmotomaton for beta reading for me and being an absolute mad lad!

**Olympus pt 1**

  
  


“I… think we landed a bit off course,” Aqua said with a confused look as she looked around the mountainside, Riku and Lea just behind her. The boys had never been to the Coliseum before, so all they had to go on was Aqua to help them get there.

“I don’t see a coliseum or anything,” Lea added as he looked around with his hand over his brow to block out the sun. All he could see were rocks, trees, rocks, clouds, and more rocks. As they reached the edge of the mountain, Riku looked over and spotted something in the distance.

“I think I see a city, down there,” he stated, pointing it out. Aqua and Lea looked in the direction he gestured towards and, sure enough, they could see a city with a few plumes of smoke rising from it.

“That must be where Hercules lives,” Aqua said with a smile. She couldn’t wait to again see the boy who had been training so hard to become a hero, so many years ago.

“Ugh, what’s so special about Wonderboy that everyone wants to see him?”

Riku, Aqua and Lea looked to each other in confusion when the new voice spoke. They turned just as a cloud of blue and black smoke appeared behind them. From the smoke a tall man in black robes, dark blue skin, and blue flames for hair appeared. When Aqua and Riku saw him, they glared as he approached them.

“Hades,” they said in unison, causing them to look to each other in surprise, realizing that they both knew him. Lea, on the other hand, just cocked his head in confusion.

“Well, now, I would recognize the little ‘master’ and silver pipsqueak anywhere,” the god of the underworld said in a mocking tone as he looked them over, his gaze stopping on Lea. “But, you’re a new face.”

“Lea,” the redhead said as he crossed his arms. “Get is memorized.” He then turned to look at Riku and Aqua. “You know this guy?”

“’Know him’ is an understatement,” Riku said as he continued to glare at his ‘former ally’ from a time he wished he could forget.

“Whenever he’s around, it’s only ever to cause trouble,” Aqua added as she looked to Lea with a small smile. “But I’m sure with all his training, Hercules can deal with him easily.”

“What’s everyone’s fascination with that dolt?!” Hades shouted at Aqua, his whole body turning red with anger as he was engulfed in fire, but the trio seemed unfazed with his outburst. After a moment, he seemed to calm down as he returned to normal, brushing his flaming hair back with a sigh. “I’m fine, I’m cool, because soon Wonderboy won’t be a thorn in my side any longer.”

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Riku demanded as the god turned away from them. The group got into defensive positions, ready to attack if needed. The god noticed this and just smirked.

“I don’t have time to deal with a bunch of bozos like you,” he said with a dismissive wave of his hand. “I have the whole cosmos to conquer!”

“Hmph, if I recall you already tried that before, and Sora put a stop to it,” Riku remarked with a smirk, but Hades ignored him as he raised his arms up at the mountain.

“Now…” he called out to the heavens. “Where are my Titans? Show me your power!”

The trio barely had time to question what Hades meant when the ground suddenly began to shake and a strong gust of wind came down the mountainside. It made the three of them shiver at the sudden cold, Riku even spotted snow mixed in with the debris that flew past them.

“W-what the hell are those?!” Lea shouted as he pointed up the mountain. Riku and Aqua looked up and saw four monstrous beings climbing out from the crevices of the mountain. One appeared to be made out of rocks with two heads, another white and made of ice, another made of bubbling lava, and the last was just a tornado with menacing red eyes.

“Titans!” Aqua shouted, recognizing the Ice Titan she had fought in the past. The wind grew to such a strength that the keyblade master felt her boots drag on the ground. She tried to reach out and grab anything until she was suddenly in the air, screaming in fear.

“Aqua!” Riku and Lea shouted as they turned to her, only to start screaming as well as they were carried off the side of the mountain.

“Adios!” Hades called as he watched the three wielders fly off the mountain with a smirk. “That really sent them flying.” The god cocked a brow, rubbing his chin. “Sent them flying where I left… Eh, no biggie!”

===

‘ _ Welp, this is it _ ...’ The mountains were quickly fading to nothing as he flew through the air and he knew, without a doubt, that if he dared to look down he’d see the ground approaching at a truly alarming speed. Resigned, Riku could do little but accept his fate. ‘ _ This is how I die… _ ’

But, before he could collide with the ground, something– or more like  _ someone _ – grabbed him from out of the air. The silver haired teen blinked and saw that he and Lea were in the tight grip of a tall young man with reddish brown hair and amazing muscles, Aqua over his other shoulder. His bright blue eyes looked over the three of them in concern.

“I hope no one is hurt,” he said as he let them down. Once standing, Riku could see that this man was huge, even taller than Lea. 

“We would have been in worse shape, if not for you,” Riku said with a smile. “I’m Riku, and they are Lea and—”

“Aqua!” the man said with a huge smile as his eyes landed on her, making her blink in confusion. 

“I’m sorry, have we met?” she asked him curiously as she cocked her head, making the man chuckle.

“Well, it has been 10 years,” he said as he flexed his muscles. “But all that training paid off: I’m finally a hero!” At his words, Aqua’s eyes grew wide as she smiled.

“Hercules!” she gasped happily. “It’s really you! Wow, you’ve grown!”

“And you haven’t aged a day,” he remarked as he looked her over, making Aqua frown slightly. 

“It’s… a long story…” Hercules could tell it was a sensitive topic, so he didn’t bring it up again.

“Are you two the friends Aqua was looking for before?” he asked Riku and Lea. The boys shook their heads.

“Actually, we’re looking for Sora,” Riku said with a frown as he looked over the city they had landed in. It was in a state of disarray, what with the destroyed buildings and fires everywhere. “But… what happened here?”

“Hades is what happened,” Hercules said with a glare. “You’ve probably met him already.” The three of them nodded their heads in agreement. “You said you’re looking for Sora. What happened to him?” Riku was thankful that they at least landed in a world and met someone who knew the missing keyblade wielder.

“The thing is, something bad happened to him,” Riku stated  while considering how to explain the situation without breaking his promise to Mickey of maintaining the 'world order' . “He’s in danger, but is refusing our help by running away, and it could be possible that he came here to get away from us.”

“Hm, sounds pretty bad,” Hercules said as he rubbed his chin. “Unfortunately, I haven’t seen him around here, but I have been a bit busy because of Hades and all.” The others sighed in slight disappointment at that. “There is still the rest of the city and the mountain—” 

But, before Hercules could finish, multiple fireballs fell from the sky around the square, multiple Flame Core and Soldier Heartless appearing where they landed.

“Heartless!” the trio shouted as they summoned their keyblades, Hercules getting into a fighting position when they appeared.

“Let’s talk after we take these guys out!” he shouted as he charged at the enemy, followed closely by the three wielders.

===

With the three wielders and hero fighting together, the Heartless were a walk in the park, even after the third wave which included a Rock Troll. Once the giant Heartless fell, crystal heart floating to the sky, everyone relaxed and dismissed their weapons.

“Hercules!”

Everyone looked to the sky to locate the female voice and saw a white Pegasus land in the square. A young woman with long brown hair climbed off its back, joined, also, by a short man with goat legs and horns.

“Meg!” Hercules exclaimed as he approached her. She looked around the destroyed square, most of the new damage caused by the Heartless.

“Boy, that didn’t look like fun,” she remarked. Her gaze then landed on Riku and the others. “Who are they?”

“Oh, they’re friends of Sora,” Hercules said as he turned to them. “Riku, Aqua, and Lea,” he pointed them out, each waving to her with a smile. “I only managed to take the Heartless out with their help.” At that comment Meg gave them a smile.

“Then, I guess I owe you three my thanks. Wonderboy, here, may be a hero, but he can’t get anything done on his own.” Meg smirked when Hercules exclaimed with an embarrassed “Hey!”, making the others chuckle.

“Anyway, you should get someplace safe,” Hercules said as he regained his composure. “It’s too dangerous here with the Heartless. We’ll focus on getting anyone still in the city to safety.” Meg looked up to him with worry in her eyes.

“Alright, but please be careful,” she said as she took his hands in her own. Hercules smiled down at her.

“Somebody, help me!” a small voice cried out. Riku looked around, trying to locate the voice. The others seemed to have noticed it as well when Hercules looked up.

“Where did that come from?” 

Aqua looked up and she noticed in the distance a young girl trapped on the edge of a building, surrounded by fire.

“There!” she gasped, pointing her out. “A little girl is trapped!” Before anyone else could react she ran ahead, summoning Master Keeper.

“Wait!” Hercules called to her. “Running is too—”

But just as he said that, Aqua shouted “Aeroga!”, summoning a large funnel of wind that launched her into the air, getting her closer to the trapped girl. She cast the spell a few more times after using Doubleflight, sending her further away.

“… slow,” Hercules finished as he watched the master in awe. Riku turned to Hercules when he saw that Aqua could handle it.

“We will go on ahead and catch up with her,” Riku said as Lea ran ahead, jumping into the wind funnel to follow Aqua, although, not as gracefully as her when he cried out in shock from being sent flying. “You do what you can here and we’ll catch up with you later.” Hercules nodded as Riku ran forward and jumped into the funnel before the spell wore off.

A few moments later, Riku landed on a stone overlook next to Lea. By the time he had reached them, Aqua had the girl in her arms, placing her on the ground safely, the fires having been put out with water magic based on the wet stone. 

“Thank you for saving me,” the girl said with a smile as she bowed to Aqua, making her smile back.

“Just be careful and go back to your parents,” Aqua said with a smile as the girl ran off, waving to her.

“Guess it helps to have an experienced master on our team,” Lea said with a smirk as Aqua turned to the boys.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Riku said with a glare, reminding the redhead that he, too, was a master. Aqua chuckled at their banter.

“Let’s go look for anyone else in trouble,” she said as they started to head for a flight of stairs.

“Oh, and leave without saying hello to an old friend?”

Riku flinched when he heard that voice, Aqua and Lea stopping in their tracks soon after. The three turned to face a dark corridor that had appeared, and from it a familiar witch appeared.

“Maleficent!” Riku exclaimed as he summoned Braveheart, Aqua and Lea following soon after with their own keyblades. The witch– the woman who lured Riku to the side of evil, who had manipulated Terra in the past– stood before them with an amused smirk on her face. Beside her stood a large, humanoid dog in a full-body suit. Based on his appearance and from stories Riku had heard from Sora, he must be Maleficent’s henchman and Mickey’s old rival, Pete. “Are you responsible for the Heartless attacking the city?”

“Certainly not,” she said with a huff. “However, I am quite shocked to see someone so full of darkness fooling himself to think he belongs on the side of light.”

“What did you say?” Riku shouted at her, about ready to charge when he felt a hand on his shoulder. He turned to see Aqua giving him a look, shaking her head.

“Don’t listen to her words,” the master said calmly. “She is only trying to rile you up so you’ll mess up.” Her gaze returned to the witch, eyes narrowing. “But, if you are here to harm anyone, I will see to it personally that you are brought down.” Maleficent cocked a brow in amusement at her.

“Say what you want, child,” she said in a mocking tone. “But for a master, you do not seem like a threat to my plans, at all.” Aqua flinched at her words while her expression remained the same. She was probably right.

“Yeah, and the other two aren’t better off,” Pete added as he smirked at Riku and Lea, making them growl at him. “Why don’t we just finish them off now, while we still can!”

“Leave them be,” Maleficent said as she held up a bony hand to him. “We have more pressing matters to attend to. Let us meet again when I have time for such trifles.” She turned away from them as she summoned another dark corridor. Pete watched her in confusion until the realization came to him as he quickly followed her.

“Oh, yeah! That black box!”

“Hey!” Riku shouted at them as he tried to follow them, but the corridor closed before he could reach it. Now it was just the three of them again.

“What did the big guy mean about a ‘black box’?” Lea wondered as he scratched his head, Riku turning to them with a frown on his face.

“No matter what it is, it can’t be good,” the teen remarked, dismissing his keyblade along with the others.

“We can talk about it with Master Yen Sid later,” Aqua said. “For now, we need to help the people of the city and take out the source of the Heartless.”

“Right,” the boys said as the three of them left the overlook.

===

Over the next hour Riku, Aqua, and Lea made their way through Thebes, taking out any Heartless they came across and helping out any trapped civilians. One woman they saved in the garden area even called them junior heroes. Aqua almost seemed offended at that, but didn’t say anything: after being stuck in the realm of darkness for 10 years, it had only felt like days to her, so she was still a bit rusty. When they came across any areas too high up or far down to reach quickly and safely, Aqua used Aero to help them fly or descend easily. They also learned something amazing when they came across a burning alleyway that blocked their path that Lea could manipulate the flames with ease, providing them openings to pass through without being burned. 

They eventually reached a large building and could hear people shouting inside. They ran in and gasped at what they saw.

“Hercules!” they called out when they saw the hero was holding up the entire roof of the building on his own, a family of three collapsed under him. Hercules looked up and smiled when he saw them, grunting as he pushed the collapsed roof up a bit.

“Glad you guys are safe,” he said in a strained voice. “But I need you to get these people out of here, before the whole place comes down!”

“Got it!” Riku said as he helped the man stand up while Aqua carried the little girl and Lea got the mother on his back. While supporting the man, Riku rushed out of the building just behind the others and once the family was a safe distance away, the companions turned around to go help Hercules. However, just as they reached the building, it began to collapse.

“Look out!” Aqua shouted as she got in front of Riku and Lea, creating a barrier around all three of them. Because of the barrier, any debris that came their way bounced off them, the wind caused by the shock almost knocking them over. Eventually everything calmed down and the barrier was dropped.

“Hercules!” Riku called out into the rubble, trying to pull away some debris with help from the others. “Answer me!” When nothing budged and they heard nothing, the three companions feared the worst.

That’s when they heard a grunt, then, a large toppled over pillar was pushed away and from behind it Hercules emerged, brushing off dust from his arms like he hadn’t just been buried under a collapsed building. The three of them let out sighs of relief when they saw the young man was alright.

“Oh, thank goodness you’re alright!” Aqua said with a huge smile.

“It was nothing,” Hercules bragged, flexing his muscles, making everyone chuckle slightly.

That was when they heard the sound of someone clapping.

“Veeery nice! You get full marks for that!”

Lea jumped at the voice, then turned around with a glare as Xigbar walked out of a dark corridor, still clapping for them.

“What the hell are you doing here, Xigbar?” Lea yelled at him as he summoned his keyblade. When Riku and Aqua also saw him, they, too, summoned their weapons.

“I should have known that the Organization would be behind this!” Riku said with a growl as he got in front of the others. Xigbar gave a short laugh as his hands moved to his hips.

“As if!” he said with a shake of his head. “Believe it or not, I’m not here to mess with you guys. Nope, just sent on a little mission to retrieve a stubborn keyblade wielder is all.”

“You better keep your hands off Sora if you want to keep them!” Riku threatened, pointing Braveheart at the sharpshooter. “He will never join your side, and he will never fall to the darkness like you lot!”

“Oh, but he will eventually,” Xigbar said with a sneer, his one amber yellow eye glinting in the sunlight. “Why else do you think your precious Master Aqua is a-okay?” Aqua flinched when he pointed her out, knowing where this was going. “Sure, the punk might not have given in to the old man right off the bat, but if he keeps absorbing the darkness of others, pretty soon he will be on the same level as the rest of us. Maybe even worse, since he is a goody little two-shoes. A being on the side of light full of so much darkness...”

“That’s what you may think, but I believe in Sora!” Hercules said to the Organization member. “If I’m here even after risking my life to save those close to me, then I’m sure Sora can pull through, just the same!”

“That’s only ‘cuz you’ve got friends in high places, tough guy,” Xigbar said with a dismissive wave of his hand. Hercules seemed to want to tell him off, but held his tongue and stayed quiet. “Hm, now that I think about it, if your little ‘hero of light’ falls just a bit too far too soon, then it could ruin the old man’s plan in the end…” Xigbar tapped his chin in thought as he made his remark, then shrugged as he turned away from them. “Oh, well. Guess that means you guys will need to get replacements if any hearts end up breaking.”

“What are you talking about?” Riku demanded from him, lowering his weapon. Xigbar looked over his shoulder and gave the trio a smirk as he summoned a dark corridor.

“Oh, I think you three know what I mean. Deep in your hearts, at least.” He let out a chuckle as he disappeared into the dark corridor.

After a moment, the three wielders dismissed their keyblades as they turned to each other, the threat long gone but the air still thick with tension.

“What did he mean by ‘hearts breaking’? Whose hearts?” Riku asked the others, feeling an uneasy sensation in his stomach at those words. Aqua and Lea shook their heads, unsure what he meant, but having similar feelings.

“Don’t let him bother you guys,” Hercules said with a determined smile. “He just wants to get under your skin, but we can prove to him that our sacrifices haven’t been for nothing.”

Riku couldn’t help the small smile that appeared on his lips, Hercules’ determination being infectious. It had a similar effect on the others as they, too, smiled and nodded.

“We have to work together, to save Sora,” Aqua said as she placed a hand on Riku’s shoulder.

With their spirits lifted again, the group started heading back to the main square of the city. But before they went too far, Riku looked back at the place Xigbar disappeared to with a concerned look.

Something told him that the journey ahead to find Sora would not be an easy one.


	5. Olympus pt 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 2 and the rest of the Olympus arc is here! I think Olympus will be the shortest arc out of the bunch, namely because it’s mostly fighting (mainly Titan fights that I condensed or omitted entirely) and mini-quests. The rest of the arcs - up until much later in the story - will be at least 3 arcs long. Please let me know what you think of the story, if the characters seem to be true to themselves, and if you think I’m copying the script of the game too much or not. I try to change it up a bit here and there.
> 
> Credit to cosmotomaton for beta reading this random brain fart of a child I had!

**Olympus pt 2**

With Hercules on their team again, it was easier for Riku, Aqua, and Lea to navigate around Thebes from there. As they continued to take out more Heartless and help more civilians, they all kept an eye out for Sora, but so far there was no sign of the brunette.

“Didn’t you mention something about the mountain, earlier?” Riku asked Hercules as they stopped in the main square, joined shortly after by Meg, Phil, and Pegasus.

“Yeah. It’s pretty big with a lot of hiding places, and it reaches all the way up to the realm of the gods.”

“What’s going on?” Meg asked them, concerned by their troubled looks.

“Sora’s gone missing and they’re trying to find him,” Hercules told her.

“Sounds bad,” she said with a frown as she hugged herself, looking over the others. “Well, I can’t do much here, but I hope you manage to find him.”

“Your encouragement is more than enough,” Aqua said with a smile, but deep down she knew it wouldn’t be easy. Meg gave her a half smile until her eyes focused on something in the distance.

“Uh oh,” she groaned as she pointed towards the sky. “Looks like trouble is brewing.” They all turned to see what she meant, and saw dark twisting clouds in the sky at the top of Mount Olympus.

“It must be Hades,” Hercules declared with a frown. He looked to the others. “Hope you don’t mind a bit of hiking.”

===

A  _ bit  _ of hiking was an understatement. 

The easiest part was reaching the mountain and getting up the bottom half. When they barely reached the halfway point, the three wielders started to get a sense of deja vu. 

“Why does this feel familiar?” Lea said with a grumble as he took out the last of the most recent wave of Heartless that attacked them. On top of the blisters they would most likely be getting on their feet, the gang also had to fight various Heartless as they moved forward, their numbers increasing as they got higher up. Hercules looked to the top of the mountain with a worried expression.

“This is getting worse by the minute,” Hercules said as he looked to the others. “My family needs me.” With two fingers to his lips, he let out a long whistle which echoed across the mountain. Shortly after, they heard a flap of wings and Pegasus landed next to them, letting out a neigh as it did. “I’ll fly on ahead,” he said as he got on the back of his winged steed. “You guys have been a big help, but you can leave the rest to me.”

“But, your family is in trouble,” Aqua said with a frown. “Won’t you need our help?”

“I think I can handle it,” Hercules said with a smile. “My dad  _ is  _ king of the gods, after all.” And with that, Pegasus took off up the mountain.

…

“WHAT?!” the three wielders shouted in union, looking at each other in shock before looking back up the mountain again.

“Doesn’t that… technically mean Herc is a god, too?” Lea asked them as he scratched his head. This was a lot to take in. 

“I think so…” Aqua said in disbelief. That at least explained why the young man was so strong. “But will he really be okay on his own?”

“Not if the Organization is involved,” Riku said with a frown. “God or human, they have no idea how the Organization functions. We need to help him however we can.” Aqua and Lea looked to each other before they nodded with smiles on their faces.

“You’re right,” Aqua said. “We should get going if we want to catch up with him.” With a goal in mind the three of them started back up the mountain.

===

However, it took them a lot longer to reach the summit of the mountain than they had hoped. Without Hercules to guide them and show them the shortcuts, they had to take the long way around, fighting swarms of Heartless along the way. They were eventually high enough that the clouds covering the summit started to pour rain on them, the sky dark with the occasional flash of lightning. Eventually, they reached a series of tunnels that got them out of the rain, and when they exited out the other side, there was a bright light which temporarily blinded them, the ground becoming softer under their feet.

“Is this…?” Aqua said curiously as she blinked several times, getting her sight back. They looked up and stared in awe at the scene before them.

The mountain had changed from rough rocky ground to clouds, and up at the top of a flight of stairs was a grand golden gate, the light that had blinded them before was coming from behind it.

“The realm of the gods,” Riku said in awe as they approached the gate. “So… Hercules’ family lives here?” When they reached the top of the stairs, the gate opened up to reveal a sprawling landscape made up of marble, gold and clouds.

“Why would Herc give this up to live on earth?” Lea asked as they entered the godly realm. Just then there were trumpets in the air, causing them to jump in shock. “What’s with the fanfare?”

“Must be for them!” Riku shouted, when nearly a dozen Satyrs spawned in front of them, helmets dropping down to prepare for an attack. 

===

After taking out the first wave of Heartless, the wielders began to work their way through the realm of the gods, taking out any Heartless they came across while they tried to figure out where Hercules might be. Eventually, they reached what looked like a tall cloud spire that reached far up into the sky, and at the top there was a dense spiral of darker storm clouds. After she recharged her magic, Aqua cast multiple Aeroga spells to help launch them up the cloud spire, using the suspended debris of a destroyed building to aid them further. At the top there was another golden gate, and behind it three of the four Titans stood, with a column of dried magma between the Ice Titan and the Lava Titan, a man trapped inside it as the magma quickly consumed him. 

“I’m the one giving the orders now, bolt boy,” Hades said as he relaxed on a throne made of black clouds, laughing as the man’s shouts were muffled by the magma.

“Don’t get too comfortable, Hades!”

Hades jumped in shock when Hercules called out to him, flying in on Pegasus. The god growled as Hercules circled them before jumping off Pegasus, landing near the gate.

“Hercules!” Riku shouted as they pushed past the gate, drawing Hercules’ attention to them. He seemed surprised, at first, but gave them a smile before he turned back to Hades, who had jumped up from his throne as he gestured to the Titans.

“Don’t just stand there!” Hades shouted angrily at the monstrous creatures as they looked to him. “Get rid of them!” The Titans looked to who Hades indicated, their attention focused on them as the wielders summoned their weapons and Hercules prepared for a fight.

===

Riku would later come to the conclusion that, while fighting the three dark Heartless back in Twilight Town was worse than fighting Xehanort alone, fighting four Titans- after the Rock Titan climbed its way up onto the spire- was just as bad as fighting all 12 of Xehanort’s goons single handed, at the same time. Riku and Aqua focused their attention on the Lava Titan as their Blizzard magic was strong enough to handle it, while Lea fought the Ice Titan with his Fire magic, with some aid from Hercules. Once they were defeated, they then had to fight the Rock Titan and the Tornado Titan at the same time, which was made even more difficult as the Tornado Titan kept throwing them up into the air, nearly killing them several times with the descent.

But, even after taking out the two Titans, it was enough time for the first two to recover, and they were back on their feet to fight some more.

“Are you kidding me?!” Lea shouted when they were quickly surrounded by the four massive Titans again. “We’ll never take them out at this rate!”

“I have an idea,” Hercules said with a smile as he ran past the Titans and jumped to the top of the lava mound. He tore open the top of the mound, a bright light emitting from beneath the dried lava, then a jovial laugh could be heard. Zeus, king of the gods, forced open the rest of the mound as he stretched his arms out, giving off a godly glow.

“Thank you, my boy,” Zeus said with a smile as he patted Hercules on the shoulder. The god glared at the Titans, and it almost looked like the giants had looks of fear in their eyes as the god summoned multiple lightning bolts in his hands. “Let’s show them what your old man can do!” With a huge swing of his arm, Zeus sent one of his lightning bolts at the Titans, flashing brightly in the sky, when it connected with the Titans there was a deafening crack of thunder, causing the three wielders to cover their ears. The god did this a few more times until the Rock Titan was hit in one of its faces, grabbing it in pain as it tried to run away, the other Titans following close behind. The three wielders cheered, now that they had the advantage.

“Oh, no you don’t!” Hercules shouted as he ran after the Titans. He reached the tail end of the Tornado Titan and grabbed it at its base. With a flex of his muscles, he swung the Titan around like a giant ragdoll, swallowing up the other Titans in the process. Then with a final swing and a shout, Hercules sent the Titans up into the sky where they met their demise in a massive explosion.

“Finally!” Lea shouted as he high fived Riku and Aqua, who were both laughing with glee.

“I can’t believe it!” The three wielders turned to see Hades fuming as he approached them. “I put eighteen flipping years into that plan, and you ruined it!” the god shouted.

“Just give up,” Aqua said with a smirk, the boys crossing their arms as they too smirked at him. “You’ll never be able to defeat Hercules.”

“Go back to whatever hole you crawled out of and skedaddle!” Lea said mockingly.

“And if you need help doing so,” Riku said as he stepped forward, Braveheart propped up on his shoulder. “Then we will be more than happy to help you along.” The god growled at them as he was consumed by fire.

“I did not come this far to be  ridiculed by Zeusy high and mighty, his little sunspot, and a bunch of nobody nitwits!” Hades yelled. “I’ll just destroy you all myself!”

“Hades.”

The god flinched at the voice as he turned to see Hercules standing behind him, Zeus at his side with another lightning bolt in hand. “The exit is that way,” Hercules said as he pointed out the gate, stepping aside so that Hades had a clear path out. Hades growled at him for a moment longer before he deflated, flames dying down as he walked towards the gate. “Wait, I almost forgot,” Hercules said as he approached the god, and when he turned towards him Hercules punched him in the face, sending him flying into the gate with a pained shout. “That’s for trying to wreck Thebes.” Hades grumbled as he got back to his feet, massaging his face as he surrounded himself in black smoke to leave.

“You’ll pay for this,” he grumbled angrily. “I can still dunk your little Nut-Meg in a river of de--”

But he never got to finish that statement as Zeus sent a lightning bolt at him, causing Hades to shout as he disappeared in a cloud of smoke.

The three wielders let out sighs of relief as they collapsed to the ground, dismissing their weapons as they did.

“It’s over!” Lea said as he leaned back against Riku’s back for support, Aqua leaning on them.

“Thanks for the help, guys,” Hercules said as he approached them with a smile, Zeus right behind them. The three looked up at the two gods with smiles of their own, but you could tell that they were dead tired.

“You three need a pick-me-up!” Zeus said with a smirk as he leaned down and pulled all three of them into one big bear hug, making them all cry out in shock. Not because they were getting hugged by the  _ king of the freaking gods _ himself, but that when he hugged them they felt all their energy return to them instantly. After a moment they were set back down on their feet, fully refreshed and ready for more thanks to literally be blessed by the gods.

“Thank you so much,” Aqua said with a smile.

“Anything for friends of Sora,” the god said with a bright smile that nearly overpowered his own godly light.

“You know Sora?” Riku asked him curiously.

“I never met the lad personally, but Hercules has told me a lot about him,” Zeus said as he patted his son on his shoulder. “I’ve also heard that you’re looking for him. I haven’t seen or heard of him anywhere on the mountain, but we will keep our eyes and ears open for him.”

“Thank you,” Riku said with a smile as his shoulders slouched slightly. While it was nice to know that the gods would also be on the lookout for Sora, it didn’t help that even they haven’t seen him around.

===

With Olympus saved, Hercules offered to walk the three wielders out of the realm of the gods so that they could find their ship to leave. When they got past the gate they noticed that Hercules continued to follow them.

“Are you not going to stay here?” Lea asked the young man curiously. “This is your home.” Hercules gave the fire user a smile as he looked up at the golden gate behind them.

“I can come visit my family whenever I want,” he said. “But if I stayed, I’d have to be apart from the person I love most… and that life would be empty.” 

“Hercules.”   
  


At the familiar voice, Hercules turned around and smiled when he saw Meg approaching the steps, smiling up at him. She must have been worried and followed him up there. He ran forward and pulled Meg into a loving hug. The three wielders watched the couple with smiles on their faces.

“We should leave them be,” Riku said as they started to walk past them, giving them their space. But just before they reached the tunnels to take them back down the mountain, Aqua let out a gasp.

“Wait a moment!” she said to the boys as she ran back to Hercules, Riku and Lea watching her curiously. “Sorry to interrupt,” Aqua said sheepishly as she approached Hercules who looked down at her curiously.

“What’s up, Aqua?” he asked her.

“I was just wondering,” she said with a smile. “I can’t believe he slipped my mind until now, but… What happened to Zack? I never saw him in Thebes.” At the mention of the boy who had been in training with Hercules so long ago, the god gave Aqua a sad smile.

“Sorry, I have seen him in years,” he said, making Aqua frown sadly. “He disappeared about ten years ago, shortly after you left. I don’t know where he is now.”

“Thank you, anyway,” Aqua said as she forced a smile onto her face before giving the couple a wave as she returned to Riku and Lea. The boys noticed her change in mood and watched her curiously.

“Is everything okay?” Riku asked her, drawing her attention to him.

“It’s nothing…”

===

Once in the gummiship and back in the lanes between, Riku slumped into the pilot’s seat, Aqua and Lea doing the same behind him.

“Seems like Olympus was a bust,” Lea groaned as he rested his head in his hand, leaning on the armrest of his seat.

“And I am definitely  _ not _ considering the encounter with Braig a clue,” Aqua said as she crossed her arms, half tempted to sit in the chair sideways to prop her legs up. Riku looked at her in confusion at her statement. “You called him ‘Xigbar’. I knew him as Braig 10 years ago.”

“Was he as much of an asshole then as he is now?” Lea asked her curiously, causing her to give him the stink eye for his language. 

As Aqua proceeded to tell Lea off for speaking in such a way, Riku turned ahead and pulled out Sora’s crown pendant from his pocket, examining it with a sad frown. Just then, an electronic tune began to play from his pocket. He quickly put the pendent away and got out his gummiphone, Aqua and Lea going quiet as they watched him answer the call.

“Hiya, Riku,” Mickey said with a smile, the mouse appearing on the screen of Riku’s phone. “How’s the search going?”

“Not that great,” Riku said with a frown, Aqua and Lea getting up from their seats to get in on the call. Mickey gave the teen a sad smile as he looked to the others.

“Gosh, sorry. But don’t get too down. I’m sure you’ll learn something soon.”

“Well, we sort of did, in Olympus,” Aqua said as she leaned forward, waving to the king. “We encountered a few familiar faces.” 

“Oh, yeah!” Riku said, sitting up slightly. “We bumped into Pete and Maleficent, looking for a black box or something.”

“A black box?” Mickey repeated curiously, a gloved hand on his chin as he seemed deep in thought.

“Then we saw Xigbar,” Lea added, leaning against Riku’s chair. “He was being his usual annoying, cryptic self, but he said that the Organization is trying to find Sora. Guess they are having just as much trouble tracking him down as we are.”

“That’s good, at least!” the three of them heard the familiar voice of Goofy say. The guard captain peeked in over Mickey’s shoulder, Donald slipping in on the other side. “If even the Organization doesn’t know where he is, then they can’t use him for whatever plans Master Xehanort has!”

“But then that means there are more people looking for him,” Donald pointed out with a glare. “There are only so few places Sora could hide if Riku  _ and _ the Organization are looking for him.”

“Oh, right,” Goofy said with a frown, scratching the side of his head. Riku gave them a small smile.

“Don’t worry. We know your minds and hearts are in the right place,” Riku told them, making the toons smile brightly. “And we won’t stop looking for him, even if we have to go further than you did during your search.” Aqua and Lea nodded in agreement, smiles back on their faces as well.

“Well, good luck out there!” Mickey said with a thumbs up. “I’ll talk to Master Yen Sid about that ‘black box’ you mentioned before, and we’ll do anything else we can to help in Radiant Garden.” Donald and Goofy waved goodbye as they left the screen. “Speaking of which,” Mickey said once his friends were gone. “There is some interesting information Ienzo had for ya’ll.”

“Ienzo does?” Riku asked curiously as the screen flickered, switching over to the silver haired scientist, who was holding his phone in one hand while he typed away on a computer off screen with the other.

“Yes, it is about the encrypted data we have been looking through,” he said through the phone. “Thanks to Pence in Twilight Town, we are able to sort through the data faster, but it will still take time. However, I did find something interesting in Ansem the Wise’s notes.”

The three wielders waited curiously as Ienzo pulled something up on his computer screen.

“According to these notes, Sora’s heart is not just his own.”

“Well, we kinda already knew that,” Lea said with a smirk in regards to Roxas. Ienzo nodded as he gave the redhead a small smile.

“That is true, but he made a note that there are multiple hearts,” the scientist said. “As in, more than just Roxas’ heart.”

“What, really?” Riku asked him curiously, Aqua rubbing her chin in thought. “Whose heart?”

“That information is still encrypted,” Ienzo said with a frown. “It is already quite fascinating that Sora and his Nobody are able to coexist in one body, but to have  _ multiple  _ hearts is unheard of. If he were here, I have a plethora of questions to—” Ienzo stopped himself, looking away from the screen with guilt in his eyes. “Sorry. I was out of line, bringing him up in such a way.”

“It’s okay, Ienzo, we know you mean well,” Riku said with a small smile. Ienzo gave the teen a smile in return, his shoulders relaxing slightly.

“We will continue to decipher the data and call you back once we have more information, ” he said as he looked over the computer screen again. 

“Thanks, again,” Riku said before he ended the call.

“So, where to now?” Lea asked him as he and Aqua took their seats again.

“I’ll just follow my heart,” Riku said with a smile full of determination as he sent the ship forward through a new gate that appeared.


	6. Toy Box pt 1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Wow, it’s already been a week, and time to update with the start of the Toy Box arc! From here the chapters might start to get longer or at least the arcs will get longer.
> 
> So, let’s see how the Proud Parent Squad deals with being 6 inches tall and made of plastic...
> 
> Credit to cosmotomaton for putting aside time to beta read this monstrosity I decided to write!

**Toy Box pt 1**

  
Deciding it was time to expand their search and go to new worlds, Riku took them through the gate and they landed on a new world. When the ship landed they were someplace dark, with just enough light from the ship for the trio to make their way outside.

“Where are we?” Riku questioned as they looked around. They seemed to be underneath something large, providing them cover for the ship. They walked forward until they came across a source of light and…

“Is that a giant ball?” Lea stated, pointing out a large rubber ball with a star on it. It was so big that it seemed more like a giant round boulder than a ball.

“And… that looks like a xylophone,” Aqua said in awe, pointing out the large children’s toy. “However, it seems much bigger than normal.”

When they finally reached a more open area and the source of the light, Riku noticed that they were in the bedroom of a child with the toys scattered across the floor and posters on the walls. But the thing is…

“Wait… did we shrink?!” Riku exclaimed when he saw that what they had been under was a bed. And based on the size of the furniture, they must have been no more than six inches tall.

“Holy crap, we did!” Lea gasped when he looked down at himself. “Our bodies changed, too!”

Riku looked down at himself and saw that, yes, their appearances had changed. Now, it looked like their bodies were made of plastic, with their clothes physically a part of them. He looked up and saw that Aqua’s and Lea’s features were slightly different. Aqua’s sleeveless top had turned into a blue and gray jacket, half her skirt was missing and seemed shorter, and a pair of glasses had appeared on her face. Lea now wore a black jacket with the sleeves ending halfway down his arms, hands black, most likely to resemble gloves, and a black and red fedora on his head. His hair also seemed more tame than usual, it changed to look like it was held back in a low ponytail. Riku noticed that his own outfit seemed to stay the same except for a few color changes here and there.

“I remember Mickey telling me about this before we left,” Aqua said in awe as she looked over herself. “He had given Lea and I these glass pins and told us that we would change depending on the world.”

“Oh, yeah,” Lea nodded as he remembered. “Something about ‘world border’ or something?”

“’Order’,” Aqua corrected him with a sigh and a roll of her eyes. At least Riku now knew that the pin Mickey gave him did its job.

Just then, Riku sensed a dark presence in the room and looked around, gasping when several Shadows and Toy Troopers spawned a few feet away.

“Heartless!” Riku shouted as he ran forward, summoning Braveheart as a Shadow jumped at him, slicing it in two mid jump. Aqua and Lea gasped as they, too, summoned their weapons and joined in the fray.

It didn’t take long and soon, the Heartless were gone. With the area safe for now, the three wielders dismissed their weapons.

“Are they new?”

Riku, Aqua, and Lea turned when they heard someone speak. Approaching them were… toys?

“Guess that explains why we look the way we do,” Lea whispered to Riku, who nodded as he examined the newcomers. There was a cowboy, a spaceman, a green dinosaur, and a piggy bank.

“Wait, you look familiar!” the dinosaur exclaimed as he rushed forward, stopping at Riku, who watched him in amusement. “I’m sure I know you! You’re, uh, um, you’re—”

“Yazora!” the piggy bank said as he joined the dinosaur, who agreed with a delighted “yeah”.

“I’m sorry, but my name is Riku,” the silver haired teen corrected them, but they didn’t seem to hear him as they both chatted excitedly to each other.

“Seems like you have a fan,” Lea said with a smirk, Aqua giggling next to him. Riku could only glare at them when he noticed a red dot appear on his chest.

“Stay back,” the spaceman threatened them, getting into a defensive position as he pointed an arm at them, and from there Riku could see the light of a laser. The three of them hesitated to raise their hands, looking at each other in confusion. “For all we know, the intruders sent them.” It was quite obvious that the spaceman toy didn’t trust them.

“But it’s Yazora!” the dinosaur gasped as he did his best to hug Riku with his short arms, almost knocking the teen over. Riku instantly felt uncomfortable while his would-be friends continued to chuckle.

“Slow down, Rex,” the cowboy said with a smile, but he, too, seemed wary of them. “We don’t know them.”

“It’s okay, we can trust them,” Rex said with a big toothy smile. “They’re the number-one-selling heroes in the country!”

“Andy’s mom must’ve bought them for him,” the piggy bank added.

“Right! You saw how they took care of the intruders! They must be here to figure out where our friends are! Or, how Buzz’s laser is now all laser-ing, and all the other weird stuff! That’s a hero’s job!”

Riku only felt more confused at the one-sided conversation that took place in front of them. He looked back at Aqua and Lea, who also seemed to be lost.

The cowboy appeared to think on it as he looked over the three of them, rubbing his chin.

“Woody, be smart,” the spaceman, most likely Buzz as he was the only one with a laser, said to the cowboy. Woody looked over at his friend, back at the newcomers, then smiled.

“So, you must be Andy’s new toys, right?” he asked them, Buzz watching him in shock.

“I… guess?” Riku said in a confused voice, knowing that they had to maintain the order, so he did his best to play along.

“Well, you sure did a number on those intruders,” Woody added.

“Those were the Heartless,” Aqua said as she stepped forward. “They are dangerous monsters that steal the hearts of others.”

“You could say we’ve been dealing with them for a while,” Lea said with a smirk, making Rex light up.

“I knew it!” the dinosaur exclaimed excitedly.

“Then, in that case, you’re fine by me,” the cowboy toy said with a smile. “The name’s Woody. Put ‘er there.”

“Nice to meet you,” Riku said with a smile as he shook hands with the toy. “I’m Riku—”

“Yazora!” Rex cried out again as he hugged Riku again, making the teen groan while his companions laughed.

“Knock it off!” he said as he pushed the dinosaur off him. “My name is Riku, seriously!”

“And my name is Aqua,” the blue haired woman said with a smile and a wave.

“The name’s Lea,” the redhead said with a smirk and a finger on his temple. “Got it memorized?”

“I’m… Buzz Lightyear,” the spaceman said after a moment, still not fully trusting them.

“And I’m Hamm,” the piggy bank said with a nod. “It’s an honor.”

“And I’m Rex, your biggest fan!” the dinosaur exclaimed, bouncing slightly in excitement. He then started ranting about how he’s played their “game” for months, and something about a Bahamut and a Slinky, but soon he was interrupted by some new voices.

“All troops at attention!”

Riku looked down in surprise when he saw five green army men hop towards him, stopping at his feet to salute him and his companions.

“Wheeeee!”

The three keyblade wielders quickly jumped out of the way when a skateboard rolled towards them to stop at the nightstand, three little alien toys hopping off to circle around them.

“Strangers,” one said as it raised its arms to Lea, who watched them in amusement.

“From the outside,” another said, waving to Aqua, making her giggle at their cute mannerism.

“Welcome,” the last of them said to Riku.

“I guess all toys are alive here,” Riku remarked in slight amazement. The outside from his islands really is an amazing place.

“So, you said that you’ve battled those intruders before,” Buzz said, crossing his arms at them. “Tell us where they came from.”

“Uh…” Riku halted, trying to figure out a way to explain the Heartless to them that made sense without telling them about the other worlds. Aqua and Lea also seemed to be at a loss for words: Aqua had never come across anyone this persistent in learning about their enemy before, and Lea– back when he was still ‘Axel’– never cared about the ‘world order’ or maintaining it.

“Well? They must’ve come from someplace,” the spaceman pestered them.

“Take it easy, Buzz,” Woody said with a smile. “What matters is that they got rid of them.” The other toys voiced their agreements. Buzz looked to the others with a soft gaze, but didn’t seem fully convinced.

“Have you seen those intruders– the Heartless– around here a lot?” Riku asked the toys. “Have they been a problem?”

“Nope, not until recently,” Woody said with a shake of his head.

“In fact, they didn’t show up until right after all our friends vanished,” Buzz added with a frown, Woody nodding in agreement. Riku looked to Aqua and Lea with worried looks.

“It can’t be a coincidence,” Aqua said as she crossed her arms in thought, the boys nodding.

“It wasn’t always this lonely,” Woody said with a sad look on his face. “One day we woke up, and they were just gone. And we haven’t seen or heard from Andy, Mom, or Molly either.” He then lifted one of his feet, looking down at a sloppily written “Andy” on the bottom of his boot, written in marker or something and slightly faded from years of wear. “We keep waiting for Andy to come home.”

“You really care about him,” Riku remarked with a sad frown as well, gaining Woody’s attention. The toy smiled as he dropped his foot to the ground.

“Yeah. He’s the best friend a toy could ever have.” All the other toys smiled brightly – even Buzz – as they agreed with him.

“Then, if we all work together, maybe we can learn where they went while also looking for the source of the Heartless,” Riku said with a smile. “Has anything else strange happened recently, aside from them?” Woody rubbed his chin in thought, looking up at the sky.

“Well… there is  _ one _ thing,” he said.

“One  _ big _ thing,” Hamm added.

“ _ Huge _ , sir,” one of the army men also added.

“What thing?” Rex asked, looking to his friends curiously. 

“When our friends went MIA, those ‘Heartless’ didn’t come alone,” Buzz said with a frown. “They arrived with a guy in a black coat, the only other toy we’ve seen aside from you three.”

“A black coat?” Riku repeated as he looked to his friends, who all glared knowingly.

“It could be them,” Aqua said.

“Or Sora,” Lea added, reminding them that Sora might have taken refuge in this new world.

“You know them?” Woody asked curiously.

“Sorta,” Riku said to the toys. “The thing is, it could be someone we are looking for, a friend of mine who went missing after bad things happened to him. But, it could also be a group called the Organization, who are bad news. We won’t know until we see their face.”

“If it’s the Organization, then they most likely are the reason everything is going wrong here,” Aqua said as she stepped forward. “But don’t worry, we’ll take care of them.”

“’Fraid not,” Woody said with a shake of his head, Buzz agreeing with him. The three wielders cocked their heads in confusion. “If this ‘Organization’ is responsible for our friends vanishing, then they’re our problem, too. We’ve got to work together.” Riku looked back at the others, sharing a silent conversation before they all nodded with a smile.

“Okay,” Riku said as he turned back to Woody. “Where was the last place you saw the black coat?”

“Sarge!” Woody called out as he turned to the army men, one standing at attention. “Any news from the recon team?”

“The latest reports place him in town, sir!” Sarge said with a salute. “At Galaxy Toys!”

“Then that’s where we start our search,” Buzz said with a smile, looking up at the open window. “Let’s move out!”

===

With some help from Woody and Buzz, Riku and the others figured out how to get up to the window and down to the driveway without accidentally breaking upon hitting the concrete. They did encounter a few more Heartless as they tried to leave the property, but Woody and Buzz proved that they could handle their own, and they learned what Rex meant earlier about the spaceman’s laser going ‘laser-ing’ when the small beam of light did some serious damage. Once the Heartless were dealt with, it was time for the long trek out of the neighborhood and into town.

Thanks to the toys, they didn’t get lost along the way and somehow managed to reach the toy store before the day’s end. The automated doors opened as they approached them, revealing a multi-floored toy store with a large spaceship themed structure at the center. The first floor seemed to be mostly decorated to advertise a space themed video game, what with the posters all over the walls and the large mecha toys on display. Lea looked up at one of the large toys, a sign next to it reading ‘’Verum Rex’ Gigas Now Available’.

“Why doesn’t that toy move?” the redhead asked Woody as he stopped next to him. The cowboy looked up at the stationary toy curiously.

“Guess it hasn’t figured it out yet,” he stated as he titled his hat slightly. Lea was confused by that statement.

“I can make it move for you,” a new voice said from above, everyone looking up in shock when a dark corridor appeared on top of the spaceship structure at the center of the store, a black coat stepping out. They lowered their hood to reveal a young man with dark skin, silver hair slicked back, and narrowed amber yellow eyes. Riku’s eyes went wide when he saw him.

“You’re the one from the Sleeping Realms!” he shouted as he glared at him. “One of the Xehanorts who kidnapped Sora!” The young man smirked at the teen.

“I’m flattered you remember me,” he remarked as he waved his hand, several Toy Troopers spawning in the store. One of them jumped up and climbed into the helmet of one of the immobile Gigas, the helmet closing and the toy jerking to life as it turned towards the group.

“Oh no! They do move!” Woody exclaimed as the toy stomped towards them, lifting its large arms into the air.

“Way cool!” Hamm said as he waddled towards the toy, not recognizing the danger until one of the arms came towards him in a punch.

“Look out!” Aqua shouted as she jumped in front of the piggy bank, summoning a barrier just in time to block the attack, Hamm crying out in shock as Woody pulled him someplace safe. Riku and Lea joined Aqua as they summoned their weapons, the young Xehanort watching them in amusement.

“Truly impressive,” the dark skinned youth remarked as he watched the three wielders force the controlled toy back. “One heart’s shadow filling the emptiness of another to bring it to life, like Heartless and Nobody, working together as a whole.”

“Why are you doing this?” Riku demanded from the young Xehanort.

“Because of a _certain_ _someone_ ,” the teen stated as he smirked at Riku. “We are missing a darkness we must reclaim. The way hearts work in this world could be of use to us, so I split the world along with the hearts in it to see how they react. I wonder how you’ll take the strain.”

“So, you are the one responsible for our missing friends!” Woody exclaimed as he glared at the young man, who smirked at him as another dark corridor appeared.

“Don’t let me down,” he said before disappearing in the portal, leaving them to their supposed demise as more Gigas came to life.

“Get to safety!” Aqua shouted as she erected more barriers around them, nearly depleting her magic as everyone ran for cover. It was just in time as some of the Gigas began to shoot at them using the guns on their arms. Riku ended up next to Lea and Aqua behind a standing display, Buzz and Woody just a few feet away from them while Hamm, Rex, and the three aliens ran for some shelves nearby. “How are we supposed to fight these?” Aqua wondered aloud as she peeked out from behind her cover, pulling back when a laser nearly hit her.

Riku wondered as well as he looked around the toy store. Those Gigas were nearly three times bigger than the wielders, and there were at least four of them out there, and, on top of the multiple Toy Troopers running around, this would not be an easy fight. His eyes then landed on a Gigas standing dormant on a nearby wall display.

“I have an idea!” Riku exclaimed as he got his companions attention. “Cover for me!” He then dashed out into the open, dodging several lasers while Aqua cast her final barrier on him, protecting him from any he was too slow to dodge. Using the shelves, Riku got up to the wall display and jumped into the empty helmet of the Gigas, the helmet closing as he grabbed the controls. And just like before, the Gigas jerked to life, and they had their advantage.

===

With Riku controlling the Gigas, it was easier to take on the Heartless. Aqua, Lea, and the toys fought the Toy Troopers while Riku took on the Gigas, drawing them away from his smaller weaker companions until they no longer had to worry about the smaller Heartless and could help him tag-team the larger threats. When the robot Riku was controlling started to take too much damage, he bailed it and simply ran for another, and this continued until all the Heartless were gone and no more toys came to life.

“He was being controlled?” Buzz stated as he stared up at the Gigas that came to life before, now standing dormant again after the Heartless controlling it disappeared. “He wasn’t just thrown into battle mode by accident?”

“Is something wrong?” Aqua asked him, frowning slightly as she watched the spaceman toy.

“Nothing,” he said dismissively, shaking his head as he glared at the ground.

“Was that the guy you were looking for?” Woody asked Riku as he jumped out of the toy robot. “What did he mean before about ‘splitting’ the world?”

“No, that wasn’t Sora,” Riku said with a frown as he friends joined him. He knew he shouldn’t have gotten his hopes up earlier.

“From what I’m getting…” Lea mumbled as she scratched his head. “He must have created a copy of this world and put your missing friends in one of them.”

“Like the data Twilight Town,” Riku said, Lea nodding in agreement. “Basically one is the real world and the other is a very convincing copy.”

“You can’t be serious,” Buzz declared with another shake of his head, not at all convinced by their ‘wild tale’. “Oh, yeah, that’s right: you’re from a video game! But, in the real world, you can’t ‘split’ a world in two.” Riku looked back at Aqua and Lea with a frown. How would they be able to explain this to him without violating the rules anymore than they already had, thanks to the young Xehanort?

“I’ll admit, it does sound far-fetched,” Woody said with a nod as he turned to Buzz. “But… let’s say we are in an alternate world? That would explain why your laser is real now, and all the other weird things. Is it really that crazy? Any worse than ‘evil emperors’ and ‘protecting the galaxy’?” The cowboy smiled when Buzz flinched at his words, clearing his throat to regain his composure.

“Point taken,” the spaceman said. “But that just means  _ they _ are part of the delusion as well,” he indicated towards the three wielders.

“Is that how you treat a friend?” Lea asked him with a glare, crossing his arms. The redhead gasped a soft “ow” when Riku elbowed him in the side, giving him a glare that screamed ‘not now’.

“We know this is a lot to take in,” Aqua said with a shrug. “But for the time being, we need to stick together, at least until we learn what’s going on here.”

“Aqua’s right,” Woody said as he took a step towards his friend. “C’mon! Every toy deserves a fair shake.”

“Tell it to  _ that _ toy,” Buzz said with a frown as he pointed at the Gigas before turning his back to them. Woody looked over at the wielders and gave them an apologetic frown, making them sigh in defeat. This was going to be a tough day.

“Sheriff, sir!” Sarge shouted as he hopped forward, followed closely by his men. “Rex has been dino-napped, and Hamm and the aliens are MIA!”

Scratch that: it was going to get worse.


	7. Toy Box pt2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Toy Box pt2 is here! I've reached all the way up to Monstropolis right now with some parts of Arendelle done, but it's gonna be a while before I post those.
> 
> Credit to cosmotomaton for beta reading and overall being an awesome support!

**Toy Box pt2**

With their current group of friends now in trouble, Buzz agreed to work together for the time being, but he still showed skepticism towards the three wielders. After the army men split up to look for Hamm and the aliens, Riku, Woody and the others made for the second floor of the store to locate Rex. They were able to use the ball railings attached to the structure at the center of the store to reach the second floor, where more Heartless spawned and controlled a Gigas or two. After the Heartless were dealt with, the gang made for the Action Figure store where Sarge saw Rex being hauled off to. The inside of the store had several more displays featuring Gigas and monster-like toys from various other games.

“Rex!” Woody cried out as he ran in, Riku and the others close behind. When they caught up to the cowboy he was looking around in confusion, scratching his head.

“What’s wrong, Woody?” Riku asked him worriedly.

“I was sure I saw him walk this way…” Woody mumbled as he continued to look around the store. He definitely saw a dinosaur walk around the corner. Riku helped by looking around as well until he heard something that sounded like a growl.

“Did you hear that?” he asked the others as he turned towards them. They all strained their ears to listen for the sound, the store going completely silent.

“Uh… what’s that?” Lea questioned nervously as he pointed up at a nearby display. The others looked up and saw something moving behind some boxes. Something big.

“I sense something dark,” Aqua stated with a glare, summoning Master Keeper. Riku and Lea followed her example and summoned their own keyblades just as another, louder growl could be heard.

Suddenly, a display of boxes was thrown apart when a large Kaiju toy stomped forward, letting out a roar. The three wielders could see waves of darkness emitting from the toy, the Heartless emblem on its chest. Buzz glared as he readied his laser. Aqua looked over at the spaceman curiously when he did.

“If it wanted to play nice, it should have stayed away from my friends!” Buzz declared with a smile. Aqua smiled back at him as the whole gang banded together and charged the controlled toy as more Heartless spawned in the store.

===

Taking out the Kaiju toy was harder than they thought, especially when it started attacking them with lightning and when two more appeared. Not to mention, the Toy Troopers kept trying to get into the nearby Gigas, forcing them to take them out before they got the upper hand, while avoiding stray lightning bolts. Riku finally managed to take out two of the three Kaijus by taking control of a Gigas, but had to abandon the robot toy when he received a direct hit of lightning from the final monster Heartless, rendering the robot useless. Now, it was five toys fighting against a Kaiju and nearly a dozen Toy Troopers.

“Incoming!”

Everyone looked up in shock when they heard a familiar dinosaur cry out. From on high Rex came into the frey on a toy plane, crashing into the Kaiju just as it sent out another blast of lightning. The blast ended up missing the toys and instead struck the Toy Troopers, eliminating them instantly and leaving the Kaiju stunned. This gave Riku the chance to jump forward and deliver the killing blow. A moment later the Heartless emblem disappeared from the toy’s chest and it was left immobile. Woody and Buzz rushed to Rex, helping the dinosaur up from where he had crash landed.

“What happened?” Rex asked as he looked over his friends, spotting the Kaiju toy and the broken plane next to it. Riku wondered where Rex came from while on a plane, and noticed, on the other side of the store, another toy plane flying around in a circle while attached to a line from the ceiling, another line hanging limp nearby. That explained it. “Oh, no! Did I do that?”

“Great work, Rex,” Buzz said with a smile, patting the dinosaur on his back. “Impressive moves.”

“Great?” Rex repeated curiously. He looked over at Riku and the others, who all smiled and nodded in agreement. Rex lit up at their affirmation. “Hurray! That makes me so happy!” He couldn’t hold himself back as he hobbled forward and hugged Riku, the teen freezing up at the action while Aqua and Lea chuckled.

“Yes, you were amazing,” Riku said in fake excitement, patting Rex on the head. “But do you know what happened to Hamm and the aliens?”

“Something happened to them?” Rex asked them, looking to Woody and Buzz curiously.

“Back to square one,” Buzz grumbled as he shook his head, Woody sighing as he slumped slightly. The cowboy did perk up though when he saw Sarge hopping towards them.

“Any news, Sarge?” he asked the army man. Sarge saluted the sheriff before he spoke.

“Sir! One of my men just located Hamm forward of our position, in Babies and Toddlers. The corporal was debriefing him, but something must have gone wrong. All radio contact has been lost.” Woody looked to his friends and the three wielders in worry. 

“Do you have anything more specific?” Buzz asked the army man.

“Right before I lost contact, I heard music with some sort of sonic interference.” Everyone looked at each other curiously at that.

“Could it be the Heartless?” Aqua asked the boys, who both shrugged as they were just as confused as her.

“We should still check it out,” Riku said, everyone nodding in agreement.

“Uh… I think I’ll stay by the exit,” Rex said nervously, fidgeting on the spot. “I’ll just slow you guys down…”

“Good idea,” Aqua said with a smile. “We need someone to watch the entrance. Think you can take on such an important mission for us?”

“Yes, sir- uh, ma’am!” Rex said excitedly, saluting her before he rushed out of the store. When Aqua turned back to the others, she saw Buzz giving her a smile of approval before he walked ahead to join Woody.

===

With Rex someplace safer, it was time to find Hamm. Because Babies and Toddlers was closed from the inside, the only way in was through the vents. Luckily, there was an open vent in the Action Store connected to the children’s store. Unluckily, there were Heartless in the vents they had to fight along the way, but only the smaller Shadows, Toy Troopers, Large Bodies, and Pole Cannons. No monstrous Heartless, thank goodness.

Woody and Buzz helped to guide them through the maze of vents until they reached a loose vent cover. After forcing it open, they found themselves on top of a display shelf in a store almost entirely pink in color, dolls and stuffed animals everywhere.

“This is Babies and Toddlers,” Woody said as they climbed out the vent and made their way down the shelf to the floor. “Sarge said something about ‘music’ when he lost contact with Corporal.”

“So, we look for anything that would make music,” Riku said as they started walking through the store, the others agreeing with him.

In reality, the store wasn’t that big, but because of their small size it took some time for them to look over everything in the store to see what would cause music. They saw that there were speakers up along the corners of the ceiling, but a quick check by Woody and Buzz confirmed that the power was off for them. That was when Riku noticed a small display area that had animatronic frogs dressed formally, most of the frogs holding different musical instruments while one frog held a conductor's wand. Did the frogs play music or something?

“What’s this?” Lea called out as he climbed into a plastic record player. He nearly slipped as he walked on it, causing the record on top to start moving. When the needle dragged along it, Riku could hear music play from the top, and the frogs started to move.

“Hey, the frogs play along with the music,” Aqua stated, also noticing the figures move. “Keep walking, Lea!”

“Uh, okay,” Lea said in confusion, walking along the record.

“That’s not how you do it!” Woody said with a chuckle as he joined the redhead, running on the record. Lea almost tripped again, but managed to keep up with the cowboy as they ran as fast as they could. Because of their constant moving, the music continued to play and the frogs moved, like a mini orchestra.

“Is this what the music sounded like?” Riku asked Sarge as he looked down at the army man.

“Affirmative, Riku,” the green man said with a salute. “But we have yet to locate the corporal.” The toys looked around when Riku noticed an odd sound coming from the frog orchestra.

“Do you hear that?” he asked the other toys. Aqua, Buzz, and Sarge followed him as he walked along the orchestra. Then he heard it again. It sounded like a clunky, muffled hum. He followed the sound until he reached a horn that appeared to be struggling. “Here,” he said as he looked inside it, seeing something green moving around. He reached in and pulled hard, and with a sudden shout, the silver haired teen fell back, another green army man landing next to him, the horn now playing properly.

“Corporal!” Sarge shouted as he hopped forward, helping up the injured toy. “You alright, son?”

“Y-yes, sir,” the toy said as he struggled to stand up.

“You’re the one who found Hamm,” Buzz stated as he looked down at the army man. “What happened?”

“I was radioing in when a hand grabbed me and shoved me in there,” he said as he pointed to the horn. “They must have taken Hamm somewhere else…”

“I’ll look after the corporal while you look for Hamm,” Sarge declared as he supported Corporal with one arm over his shoulder, saluting them with his other hand. “Good luck out there.”

“Be careful,” Aqua said with a smile as the army men hopped away, one them being dragged slightly.

“W-what’s… going… on?”

Riku looked up in confusion and saw that Lea and Woody were still running on the record player, both steadily becoming exhausted. “Oh, sorry!” Riku called out with a smirk, Aqua chuckling when she noticed them. “You guys can stop now!” At those words, Lea and Woody jumped off the record player, gasping for air as they joined the others.

“Why… didn’t you guys...say sooner?” Woody asked them, gasping for air.

“There’s no time for a rest,” Buzz said, trying not to smile. “We need to look for Hamm.”

“I think I might know where he is,” Aqua said as she looked up. When the toys gave her a confused look, she pointed up at another display: just a few feet up near a display window was a dollhouse, shaking around like something was trapped inside it.

A moment later, they were forcing open the dollhouse, and sure enough, Hamm waddled out.

“Talk about cabin fever!” the piggy bank exclaimed when he saw them. “Thanks for the save!”

“You okay?” Woody asked his friend worriedly.

“Other than being locked in, the accommodations were nice,” Hamm said as he looked back into the dollhouse, Lea peeking in curiously. Other than everything being smaller than normal and made of plastic, it was a cute little house.

But, then, Lea saw a large golden amber eye staring back at him from one of the windows.

“Oh, shit!” Lea cried out as he jumped back, and just in time as the dollhouse was knocked over by a sudden force of darkness. Everyone looked up in fear when they saw an Angelic Amber doll floating near them, a Heartless emblem on one of the rabbit ears on her head. Aqua recognized the doll from the many displays and packaging lining the walls, but noticed that she normally had bright blue-green eyes instead of the soulless yellow ones she currently had.

“It’s her!” Hamm shouted in fear as he hid behind the three wielders as they summoned their keyblades. “She’s the doll who pig-penned me! I’m outta here!” And with that, Hamm jumped out the window with some help from Woody, telling him to head for the entrance.

“Not another possessed toy…” Buzz muttered, frowning as he got into a fighting stance next to the others just as more Heartless spawned.

===

It took some serious team effort, but eventually the Angelic Amber collapsed to the ground, lifeless, as the Heartless emblem disappeared. The three wielders huddled together to make sure everyone was okay, but Riku noticed Buzz looking up at the doll with an unreadable expression.

“Is everything alright, Buzz?” Riku asked the spaceman. Aqua, Lea, and Woody all turned to him curiously.

“What if we end up just like her?” Buzz asked them as he continued to glare at the immobile doll. “Forgetting ourselves and attacking each other?” The three wielders looked to each other in worry while Woody stepped towards his friend.

“You’re just overthinking it,” the cowboy said with a smile. “That won’t happen to us.”

“You can’t be sure!” Buzz said as he looked at Woody, brows knitted together in worry. “What if I get taken over and attack you?” It seems fighting the possessed toys really scared him.

“Don’t think something so ridiculous,” Aqua said as she stepped forward with a smile. “The Heartless - the darkness- can only take control of you if you let your heart falter. But, even if the darkness got to you, as long as your heart is strong, nothing can harm you.” She turned to look back at Riku and Lea. “I know of those who may have had their hearts lost to darkness before, but they refused to give up, and with the support of their friends, they came back stronger than ever.”

“That’s good to hear,” Woody said with a smile as he patted Buzz on his shoulder. “Cuz I know you Buzz, and you’ll never lose heart when it comes to your friends!” Buzz looked up at Woody, then to Aqua and the boys, who all gave him reassuring smiles. After a moment he seemed to relax.

“True enough,” he said softly, smiling at them. “Sorry I worried you all.” 

“Not a problem!” Woody exclaimed, patting Buzz on the shoulder again before turning to the wielders. “Now, let’s go look for our friends!”

“But where could the aliens be?” Aqua asked aloud, crossing her arms in thought. Riku was also curious until he heard a weird sound coming from outside the store.

“Wheeeeeeee!”

Everyone looked up in surprise when they saw a UFO with the Heartless emblem on it fly by the open shop window, the three aliens hanging underneath it in the clutches of a giant claw.

“There they are,” Woody said with a smile as he ran for the open window, Buzz and the wielders right on his tail.

===

Saving the aliens was already difficult enough as they had to chase around a UFO, but it was made worse when Toy Troopers, Pole Cannons, Shadows, Large Bodies, and Marionettes spawned and attacked them, several of the troopers controlling Gigas and the Marionettes possessing random toys, causing their eyes to glow yellow and a Heartless emblem to appear on them. The three wielders managed to take out one of the Gigas for Riku to control, and from there, they learned to follow the UFOs flight pattern so the rest of the gang could attack it while Riku fought off the Gigas and other Heartless. Eventually, the Heartless stopped spawning and the UFO crashed near an indoor play area, releasing the aliens.

“We are back!” the aliens said as they hobbled in circles around Aqua. “Our ship is no more! Nirvana will not be reached!” Aqua kneeled down next to the aliens and gave them a sad smile.

“Sorry we destroyed your ship,” she said apologetically. The aliens looked up at her with smiles on their faces.

“Fear not,” one of them said with raised arms. “We still have our new home.”

“The Chamber of Andy,” they said in union, making Aqua smile brightly.

“They’re right,” Buzz said with a frown. “We don’t belong here. We should be back home, in Andy’s room.” The three wielders looked to Buzz in slight confusion.

“But… that Xehanort guy said that this world is fake,” Lea pointed out. “Even if you returned to that room, Andy won’t—“ But Lea didn’t get a chance to finish as Aqua elbowed him in his side, making him yelp in pain. Buzz looked to the three wielders with a determined look on his face.

“Even if this world is fake, that doesn’t mean Andy isn’t out there looking for us,” he said. “I’m going back home. You with me, Woody?” Woody seemed to contemplate what he said before giving a nod.

“You’re right, Buzz,” the cowboy said with a smile. “Now that all our friends are back together, we should head home.” The toys all headed out of the play area, the three wielders following close behind.

===

It didn’t take long for the gang to reach the ground floor where the other toys waited for them, huddled up together and chatting away.

“Sarge, roll call!” Woody called out as the three aliens joined the group. Sarge stood at attention when he saw them approach.

“Sir, yes, sir!” the army man shouted with a salute. “Roll call! All toys at attention!” When the toys heard the order, they all stood together in a single file line as Buzz walked past them, counting them down.

“Sarge… Army men times four… Hamm… Aliens 1, 2, 3…” But he stopped when he reached the end of the line and noticed that they were short by one dinosaur. “Where’s Rex?”

“Oh, he took off not long ago,” Hamm mentioned nonchalantly. “He’s up by the video games on the third floor.” Buzz ran a hand across his face as he gave a long sigh.

“Here we go again…”

“What happened to Rex?” Riku asked the toys as the wielders joined the group.

“He thought Woody and Buzz still didn’t trust you guys, so he wanted to prove them wrong,” Hamm stated. Riku looked back at Aqua and Lea, who both frowned at the news.

“But it’s too dangerous to be walking around with the Heartless still here,” Riku said as he turned to Woody and Buzz. “We’ll help get him back.”

“Thanks, guys,” Woody said with a smile as they headed back into the store.


	8. Toy Box pt3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Part 3 of Toy Box is here! The story should start to get more unique and interesting from here on out as I recently decided to include little "intermission" chapters just to fill in some background story and to give you all a break from the Proud Parent Squad.
> 
> Credit to cosmotomaton for beta reading for me in their off time and I'm running out of good compliments to give them send help!

**Toy Box pt3**

By using the ball railings at the center of the store again, they managed to reach the third floor, landing near a place called High Score. When they entered the store, they could see Rex walking around a large central display set near the entrance of the store. When the dinosaur saw his friends and the three wielders, his eyes lit up, running towards them with a game case in hand.

“Look, look, I found it!” he exclaimed as he shoved the game case towards Riku, nearly making the teen fall over in shock. He grabbed the case and looked it over in awe, Aqua and Lea taking a peek as well. While they looked over the box art, Woody and Buzz had walked on ahead to look at the standing display curiously.

The game cover said ‘Verum Rex’ and depicted a young man in dark clothes and short silver hair sitting casually on a seat, a glowing red sword in one hand and a crossbow like weapon in the other. Riku had to agree with Rex on one thing: the young man looked frighteningly similar to him, the only real differences being that he appeared slightly older than him and he had two different eye colors, one bright sky blue and the other blood red.

“Huh, would you look at that,” Lea said with a smirk as he took the case, flipping it to look on the back. He skipped reading the game description and only looked over the art where they could see the different Gigas, a girl in a white dress, and two more fighters next to the ‘Yazora’ guy, one with red hair and a fedora, and another with glasses. “This guy kinda looks like me,” he stated as he pointed out the redhead, Aqua rubbing her chin in thought.

“This could explain why we changed the way we did,” she muttered. “In this world, these game characters already existed, so the magic changed us to match with them rather than just changing us into random toys. At least, that’s what I assume happened.” Riku nodded in agreement. It made sense to him, at least.

“So, they are video game characters,” Woody said with a smile as he looked over at Buzz. “I told you they’re toys, just like us!” Buzz looked up at the standing display featuring Yazora for a moment longer before he nodded, a small smile on his face.

“I suppose so,” he finally said, the three wielders relaxing slightly now that they’ve gained his trust, to a degree. “But we should head back to the exit now. The others are waiting.”

“We’re leaving already?” Rex questioned the spaceman toy as he ran over to another shelf, picking up the Verum Rex strategy guide. “At least let me look through the guides! I want to know how to beat Bahamut!”

“Maybe next time,” Buzz said with a tired smile as he patted Rex on his back. “We need to head home.” Rex gave a sad sigh as he put the guide back, giving his friend a small nod before he followed them. Riku, Aqua and Lea gave him small smiles as well after they put the game back on the shelf, joining the other toys as they headed for the exit.

“Leaving so soon?”

The three wielders gasped when they heard the voice, spinning around to see the young Xehanort from earlier approaching them with a smirk. Woody and Buzz also stopped to turn to him, glares on their faces as they readied for a fight, Rex hiding behind Buzz with a gasp.

“I can’t let you leave yet,” the dark skinned teen said. “There is still so much I need to observe.”

“We’re the ones you’re after, Xehanort!” Riku shouted at him as he summoned his keyblade, Aqua and Lea doing the same. “Leave Woody and his friends out of this!”

“You would say that, wouldn’t you,” Xehanort said with an arched brow. “Reminds me of another fallen guardian, he told me the same thing earlier.”

“Sora?” Riku gasped, lowering his blade for a moment. Sora was here?

“Why don’t we move on to the final stage, then?” Xehanort stated as he raised a hand. Riku dropped down into a fighting stance along with Aqua and Lea at the other’s action, ready for whatever he sent their way.

“Buzz? What’s the matter?”

When Aqua heard Rex’s question, she looked over her shoulder at the toys curiously. Rex was looking over at Buzz, who appeared to be slightly slumped over, his shoulders trembling slightly. He then raised his laser and aimed it at Woody, who looked up at his friend in confusion.

“Buzz, would you knock it off,” the cowboy said with a raised brow, not realizing the danger as a small red dot aimed at his forehead. Aqua gasped at the action and ran towards him, just as Riku and Lea turned around to see.

“Look out!” she shouted as she quickly deflected the laser with her keyblade, the beam of light ricocheting off Master Keeper and hitting a nearby shelf, leaving behind a sizzling scorch mark. Woody jumped at the action, at a loss for words as Buzz continued to shoot at Aqua with a cold hard look in his eyes, Rex shouting in shock. Aqua concentrated and saw small dark tendrils floating off of Buzz. “That’s not Buzz right now! He’s being controlled!”

“He’s been possessed?” Woody questioned in fear as he watched Rex and Lea hold Buzz back, still trying to shoot at him. “Just like the other toys?”

“What did you do to him?” Riku shouted at Xehanort with a harsh glare as he ran towards the teen, bringing down Braveheart only for the other to vanish at the last second.

“I told you before,” Xehanort said as he reappeared behind Riku, watching the toys hold back Buzz with an amused look in his eyes. “I need to test the strength of their bonds.” Riku let out a growl as he turned to attack the teen, only for him to teleport again, this time to the top of a shelf. 

“In this world, toys have hearts, and those hearts come from a powerful bond.” Riku jumped the shelves to reach Xehanort and attack him again, missing again as he reappeared a foot ahead. 

“So, what happens when those bonds are stretched to their limit? When they are worlds apart, can cloth and plastic hold on to their hearts?” Another attack, another miss. 

“All I needed was a wedge to widen the divide— someone like you to fill them with distrust and doubt.” And again, and again, Riku got more and more frustrated as Xehanort teleported, this time reappearing back on the ground. 

“And that chasm you created can be filled with a vast darkness. Witness it for yourself.” Riku let out a battle cry as he jumped off the shelf to do a dive attack, only to miss again when the other disappeared. The teen cursed when he looked around and saw that Xehanort was nowhere in sight.

“Buzz, get a hold of yourself!” Lea shouted as he tried to hold back the spaceman toy, but was nearly knocked over when Buzz pushed him aside and shot at Woody, his attack once again blocked by Aqua. When he heard Lea’s cry, Riku remembered that Buzz was being controlled by the darkness. He turned and ran to his friends. He needed to help them—

“And where are you going?”

Riku shouted when Xehanort appeared beside him and swung his keyblade - No Name - at the wielder, forcing him to jump away and back into a shelf. He looked up and saw Xehanort getting up close and personal, with a smirk on his face, dark energy swirling around his hand…

“XEHANORT!”

Riku gasped in shock when he heard Sora’s voice, then, a cloaked figure came down from above, swinging down a familiar silver and gold keyblade at the dark skinned teen. The young Xehanort jumped back to avoid the attack, glaring at the new attacker. Their hood fell back as they stood up straight, and Riku saw a familiar mop of messy brown spikes, strands of silver here and there.

“Sora?” Riku gasped as he looked down at his friend. Sora looked over his shoulder slightly, his still blue eye narrowed slightly before he turned and charged at Xehanort, swinging his keyblade hard at him. Xehanort now had his full attention focused on Sora as he blocked his attacks before he teleported to the store exit, Sora giving chase. “Wait, Sora!” Riku shouted as he ran after the teens. As he reached them just outside the store, those humanoid Heartless that attacked him and Lea back in Twilight Town appeared from pools of darkness in the floor, cackling as they blocked his path.

“Out of my way!” Riku growled as he raised his keyblade at the Heartless, seeing Sora disappear in the distance. “I need to get to Sora!”

“Ri...ku…”

Riku froze when he heard the Heartless say his name again. One of the Heartless just swayed in place as it looked up at him, the other two twitching eerily as they continued to cackle.

“S-save… Sora...”

“Hearts… lost…”

“What are you talking about?” Riku questioned the Heartless, slowly lowering his keyblade but not relaxing just yet. It appeared that the Heartless would not be attacking him. Then all three went still as they looked up at him.

“P-please… Set… us… f-free…”

Riku stared at the Heartless in confusion as they continued to cackle, disappearing into a dark corridor that appeared behind them. Within seconds the Heartless were gone, and to his dismay Sora and Xehanort were also long gone.

“Riku?”

Riku turned around when he heard someone call his name, and saw Hamm and the other toys approaching him. They must have gotten worried at how long they were taking and came to investigate.

“What’s going on?” Hamm asked him as they met at the High Score store entrance.

“Nothing…” Riku mumbled as he dismissed his keyblade, no longer able to sense any darkness. But if that was true, then… “Wait! Buzz!” Riku ran back into the store upon remembering the possessed toy, the others following close behind. The teen saw Aqua, Lea, Woody and Rex huddled together, but noticed the lack of a particular spaceman. Aqua looked when she heard Riku approaching them.

“Riku, where were you?” she asked him, voice full of worry. The other toys looked up when they heard her call him out. 

“I was… chasing after Xehanort,” Riku partially lied with a frown. “What happened? Where’s Buzz?” The toys all frowned sadly before Lea spoke up.

“You just missed him,” the redhead said. “Right after you ran off, he disappeared into a dark corridor. He could be anywhere.”

“Sorry…” Riku mumbled as he looked down at the floor, hands clenched tightly. He felt like it was his fault that Buzz ran off, that if he had stayed he could have prevented the toy from running away. But Sora…

“What do we do now?” Woody asked the three wielders, eyes full of worry. Riku, Aqua, and Lea looked to each other in silence. What could they do?

“Sir, did I hear you say ‘dark corridor’?” Sarge asked as he hopped forward, all the toys looking down at him curiously. “I received word not long ago that a shadowy portal was sighted in the Kid Korral. It might be a long shot, but it could lead you to Buzz.” 

“Sarge, you’re a lifesaver!” Woody exclaimed, eyes full of hope. “You guys in?” he asked the three wielders. 

“Yeah,” they said in union, smiling with determination.

===

With the other toys back at the exit aside from Sarge, Riku and the others headed for the Kid Korral, which turned out to be the indoor play area from earlier. From an alternate entrance just above the barn-like doors to the play area, Sarge pointed out the black tendrils of darkness leading to a corridor coming out of a vent on the other side of the Korral. However, the entire play area was being patrolled by dozens of Heartless and multiple powerful Gigas. With Buzz on the line, they needed to find another way to the vent that didn’t involve going through the Heartless. They ended up getting there through the vents in Babies and Toddlers next door, where they only had to deal with the smaller more manageable Heartless. The gang soon found themselves in the vents within the Kid Korral, and now stood in front of a dark corridor.

“Are you guys ready for this?” Riku asked Aqua, Lea, and Woody, who all nodded in agreement. With their approval, the silver haired teen led them into the dark portal.

Everyone shivered as the cold darkness swept over them, but they continued to move forward until they found themselves in some dark dimension in the betwixt between. And just ahead, unconscious and suspended in a column of darkness, was Buzz.

“Buzz!” Woody shouted as he ran ahead, the three wielders following him. But they were stopped short when Xehanort appeared before them from a dark corridor. Woody glared when the dark skinned teen blocked his path, smirking at him. “What do you want with my friend?”

“Look at this tremendous darkness,” Xehanort said as he looked up at Buzz, dark tendrils wrapping around him. “All because he was separated from the boy he cared for most. Soon, he too will fall to darkness, just like another weak minded boy…” At those words, Xehanort turned to smirk at Riku, who only glared at the other teen. He knew what he was implying, but he also knew that it was only to get under his skin. However, his words seemed to reach Woody, who now had a look of fear on his face.

“Does that mean…” he began to question, his determination faltering slightly as the darkness began to swirl around him, playing into his fear. “We’ll end up like Buzz… if we don’t find Andy…?”

“You’re wrong,” Riku declared as he stepped forward, Aqua and Lea at his side as they all glared at Xehanort. “It doesn’t matter how close or far away he is, Andy will always be a part of their hearts, just as we will be a part of Sora’s. Nothing you say or imply will take that away.” Aqua and Lea nodded in agreement, Woody watching them in awe.

“Ah, yes, you lights are all about your ‘friends being your power’,” Xehanort said. “But if light is the power of friendship, then darkness is the much stronger power of being alone. After all, darkness is the heart's true nature, having been born from it and from where it will return eventually.”

“Whatever you’re talking about, I don’t care,” Woody said as he approached Xehanort, his eyes narrowed in anger. “Put Buzz back to the way he was, then get lost!”

“Or else what, toy?” Xehanort questioned him, eyebrow cocked in amusement.

“Yeah, I am a toy,” Woody said as he looked up at Buzz with a small smile. “And a friend.” This time when he took a step towards Xehanort, the darkness seemed to retreat from him, almost scared of his light and determination. “My guess is that no one’s ever loved you before. Because you know nothing about hearts and love.” Riku and the others again joined Woody’s side, the darkness receding even more. Xehanort frowned when he noticed this.

“There are hearts all around, trying to connect,” Aqua said as she took a step forward, the darkness pulling back even as it tried to reach for her. “Your attempt to separate them, to make Buzz feel lost and lonely, only made his connection to his friends stronger. The heart’s ‘true nature’ is to never let go of the ones you love.”

“No matter where Andy is, or how far away the other toys are, they will never let go,” Lea said as he smirked at Xehanort, flames dancing around him slightly as the darkness retreated from him, more afraid of his light than being attracted to his darkness. “They will never let their connection break, and you can’t keep them apart forever.” 

“You seemed to forget something, Xehanort,” Riku said as the darkness started to swirl around him. “No matter where it is, no matter how strong the shadows might be, the light that casts them will always prevail.”

Together, their combined light forced the darkness back and reached Buzz, the column of darkness that trapped him completely gone.

“No!” Xehanort growled when he saw the darkness retreat, summoning No Name. But before he could do anything Riku charged him, Braveheart already in hand. Xehanort was forced to use his keyblade to block his attack, and didn’t realize until it was too late that it was all a diversion.

“Woody, now!” Riku shouted to the cowboy toy, who ran past them and used the string on his back to lasso Buzz, pulling him down. They ended up crashing into each other and landing in a pile nearby. After a moment, Buzz let out a groan as he blinked a few times, looking up to see Woody above him.

“Woody…” he mumbled as he sat up, Woody leaning back with a smile on his face. “What happened? How did I get here?”

“I dunno,” Woody said with a shrug. “Guess someone flipped you into ‘dark and stormy’ mode.”

“But I don’t have a—“ Buzz began to argue, but stopped short when he realized it was a joke. Woody got to his feet and held a hand out to his friend. Buzz smiled as he took it, standing next to him. “Thank you, Woody.”

“Good to have ya back, Buzz!” Woody said brightly, patting his friend on the shoulder.

Xehanort clicked his tongue when he saw that Buzz had control of himself again, then jumped back and away from the wielders. Riku raised his keyblade to the teen, Aqua and Lea at his sides with their own weapons in hand. Woody and Buzz turned to glare at the enemy, ready to charge when needed. It was obvious he was surrounded, but he wasn’t at all concerned as a dark grin crossed his lips.

“So, even empty puppets can be given strong hearts,” he remarked as he looked back at Woody and Buzz, all signs of darkness absent from the toy.

“Our hearts will always be connected to Andy, no matter what!” Buzz declared, fists clenched tightly as he readied his laser.

“You will never understand our connection, since you’re hollower than any toy!” Woody said with a confident smile.

“But now I know a heart can be placed in the vessel of our choosing,” Xehanort said as he turned back towards Riku and the others, darkness dancing around his hands. “For that, let me give you a parting gift to play with.” Then he raised his hand and a strong wave of darkness swept over them, and everyone - even Woody and Buzz - sensed that something was summoned in the darkness.

“Xehanort!” Riku shouted as he charged through the dark wave at the other teen with the intent to strike him down. However, Xehanort blocked his attack with No Name as he began to disappear into the darkness, golden amber eyes staring back at him.

“Time’s almost up,” he said cryptically. “Find your replacements soon, or else you will lose.”

“What?”

But before Riku got his answer, the young Xehanort disappeared along with the darkness. Now, everyone found themselves in a large play area filled with bright colors and toy buildings. Up above, there was a massive toy themed Heartless that resembled a UFO, colored dark purple, blue, gray and black. It had something resembling a face on the front with big yellow eyes and a mouth, but as it moved the wielders noticed a smaller moving head on top. Its weak point.

“Let’s take it out, together!” Riku shouted as he prepared for battle. Everyone nodded in agreement and charged ahead, just as the Heartless attacked.

===

And together, Riku, Aqua, Lea, and the toys managed to take out the toy Heartless, making it disappear into a dark mass. It appeared that Xehanort’s corridor had led them to a back room in the toy store, so once they managed to reach the vents again they found themselves back on the ground floor, the other toys waiting for them at the exit. Riku couldn’t sense any more darkness, so he assumed that Xehanort had left the world along with the Heartless.

“We’re sorry for all the trouble we caused you,” Riku said to the toys, all of them looking back at the wielders in confusion. “We had hoped that we could help you find a way back home, but in the end, you’re still here.”

“We also ended up putting your friends in danger,” Aqua said with a frown, hands clasped together. Together, all three of them bowed their heads, hoping the toys would forgive them. Because their gazes were focused on the ground, they missed the knowing smiles Woody and Buzz shared.

“It does seem we are trapped here,” Buzz said, making the three wielders flinch slightly.

“We’ll never get home,” Rex said dramatically.

“Yup, stuck like pigs,” Hamm added.

“Our position appears fixed,” Sarge also added.

“Ooooh nooooooo,” the three aliens said in union.

The three wielders could feel themselves wilt slightly from the comments. They finally looked up when Buzz approached them.

“A shame we’ll have to stay here a bit longer… with our new friends,” the spaceman said as he smiled at them.

“Huh?” Riku said, eyes going wide at the statement. Woody came up next to the teen and patted him on the shoulder.

“After all the adventures we’ve had, we’re not ready to say goodbye yet,” he said with a bright smile. Upon realizing that the toys had forgiven them - or at least, never blamed them for what happened - the wielders all smiled in return.

“I’m sorry I was so stubborn,” Buzz said with a frown as he held a hand out to Riku. “Please forgive me.” Riku smirked at the toy before he took his hand, giving it a shake.

“I understand,” he said after he let go. “You care very much for your friends, and you just wanted to keep them safe. So, water under the bridge, okay?” Buzz smiled as he nodded.

“So, I guess we won’t be dealing with those intruders anymore,” Woody stated as he looked around the store, seeing the lack of Heartless. “Are you going after those guys in the black coats, then?”

“‘Guys’?” Lea repeated in confusion. “Do you mean Xehanort?”

“Yeah, and the other one,” Woody said with a nod. “I saw Riku go after them earlier. They had a weapon similar to yours.” At the mention of a second black coat, Aqua and Lea turned to Riku in confusion, who was frowning down at the floor.

“Sorry I didn’t mention it sooner,” he said. “When I was fighting Xehanort earlier, Sora appeared.”

“Sora was here?” Aqua gasped, Lea crossing his arms as he frowned. “You should have told us! We could have helped you!”

“It doesn’t matter,” Riku said with a shake of his head. “He got away before I could catch up. I’ll explain the rest later.” Eventually, Aqua and Lea nodded, sensing that this was something to discuss in private.

“This seems like that’s a mission we can’t join you on,” Buzz stated as the wielders turned to the toys.

“This is a mission we started a while ago, together,” Riku said as they started heading towards the exit. “We’re the only ones capable to do it.”

“Hm, that’s okay,” Woody said with a shrug as he approached them, Riku turning to look at him. “But just so you know, you’re a part of our hearts.” The cowboy then pointed at Riku’s chest with a bright smile. “So let us be a part of yours.” Buzz and the other toys all smiled brightly along with Woody. Riku couldn’t help but smile back, along with Aqua and Lea as they let out small chuckles.

“Thank you,” the silver haired teen said as the three of them bowed to them.

“Now, off you go,” Buzz said as he pointed to the sky, past the store doors. “To infinity and beyond!”

===

After a while, the three wielders were back on their ship and entering the lanes between, relaxing with heavy sighs into their seats. After leaving the world, their bodies had changed back to normal, now made of clothes and flesh and bone, and not hard plastic and ball joints.

“So, tell us about Sora,” Lea said as he leaned forward in his chair, Riku turning to look back at them. “What happened?”

“All I can really say is that Sora appeared out of nowhere, protecting me from Xehanort when Buzz got possessed and attacked Woody,” Riku said as he remembered what happened. “He then chased Xehanort out of the store, and when I tried to follow them, I was stopped by those talking Heartless again…”

“Them again!” Lea exclaimed as he gave a full body shudder. “Geez, those things creep me out!”

“Talking Heartless?” Aqua repeated, rubbing her arm slightly. “I’ve never heard of a sentient Heartless before.”

“The only one I knew of before was Xehanort’s Heartless, Ansem,” Riku stated as he looked at Aqua. “You met him before in the Realm of Darkness.” Aqua nodded slightly when she remembered the Xehanort clone.

“But, what are they exactly?” Lea asked them as Riku pulled out his gummiphone, typing away as he searched his contacts.

“I think I know who to ask,” the teen said as the phone rang. After a few rings, a silver haired scientist appeared on the screen.

“Oh, hello, Riku,” Ienzo said with a raised brow. “Did you need something?”

“If you can help us,” Riku said with a smile as Aqua and Lea stood next to his seat to get in on the call. “I should have mentioned this before, but there are these unusual Heartless I’ve encountered twice now, and we wanted to see if there was anything about them in Ansem’s notes.”

“Ansem the Wise does have a large database on various Heartless,” Ienzo remarked as he typed something on the computer. “Give me as many details on them as you can, and I’ll search Ansem’s data for anything similar.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The Toy Box arc is over! Sorry if it seemed like the ending was a bit abrupt, neither myself nor cosmotomaton could think of a good way to end it...
> 
> Next will either be a short intermission or the start of the Kingdom of Corona arc, haven't decided yet!


	9. Kingdom of Corona pt1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Weeks seem to pass by a little too quickly for me, since I've been stuck in home due to lack-of-work and quarantine. If I'm lucky I should be able to start working again in a few weeks. If not, then I'll be out of work for the rest of the year (sad face)...
> 
> ANYWAY! Kingdom of Corona (oof) is here! I actually finished this arc very early on since I loved the Tangled movie and really wanted to write the festival scene right away (that's in part 2). Future chapters will probably start to deviate from the original a little bit more when I start hitting repetitive spots and escort missions.
> 
> Credit to cosmotomaton for beta reading (and I ran out of compliments lol, just give them all the love pls)

**Kingdom of Corona pt1**

When Riku landed the gummiship in this new world, it was, luckily, in the denser area of a heavily wooded forest. As there were no signs of civilization close enough to suddenly take notice of an oddly shaped and colorful spaceship, the three wielders left it partially covered before they made their way through the woods. It was a calm and idyllic place, the sun overhead at noon time, giving the trees a soft golden glow. It was warm with some cloud cover, the occasional bird chirping as it flew by.

“It’s so calming here,” Aqua remarked with a smile, stretching her arms out.

“I feel like I could take a nap,” Lea said, arms behind his head as they walked into a small clearing.

“I could see Sora liking this place,” Riku said with a smile as he looked around the forest before stopping to turn to the others. “So, why do you think we were brought here? Do you two feel anything?”

“Not really,” Lea said with a shrug, giving a small yawn.

“Same,” Aqua said as she crossed her arms in thought. “But there must be a reason the gate would lead us here. Did you feel anything, Riku?” Riku only shook his head, leaving Lea to smirk at them.

“Maybe this is our chance to take a break?” he asked them curiously. Riku and Aqua gave him a look that said they were tempted to agree.

“Make way! Make way!” a male voice shouted. The trio turned just in time to see a young man wearing a blue top and brown leather satchel in hand run past them, just behind him were a couple of Shadows and Bizarre Archers chasing him. They gasped when the Heartless approached them, quickly summoning their keyblades to block their path.

“Aw, man!” Lea groaned as he took out a Shadow that got too close. “There goes my nap!”

“We’ll take a break once we find Sora,” Riku said with a grunt as he blocked some arrows from the archers, making Lea groan even louder.

“Since… you seem to know what you’re doing, mind handling them?”

The trio looked behind them and saw the man from a moment ago peek out from behind a boulder, giving them a weary smirk. 

“Yeah, we’ll take care of them,” Aqua said. “You just look for someplace safe.”

“No problem,” he said with a small flourish of his hand. “The name’s Flynn. Flynn Rider.” He then gave Aqua a charming smile and a wink, making the woman blush enough that she would have missed the shadow sneaking up on her if Riku hadn’t taken care of it. 

“Just focus on the Heartless, for now,” Riku said. Aqua nodded and returned to the matter at hand.

===

Once the Heartless were gone, they dismissed their weapons and went to see if Flynn was okay, but he wasn’t behind the boulder. 

“Where else could he have gone?” Riku asked as they looked around the clearing. “This is nothing but a dead end.”

“I hope the Heartless didn’t get him,” Aqua said with a worried look as they walked around the clearing some more. She hoped that there was someplace he could have hidden or escaped through.

“Nah, I’m sure he’s fine,” Lea said as he went to lean on a rock wall covered in vines. When he let out a sudden cry of shock, Riku and Aqua turned to see if he was okay. Except he was no longer there.

“Now where did he go?” Aqua asked with a frown, hands on her hips. Just then said redhead poked his head out from past the vines, causing the other two to jump back in surprise.

“Check this out,” he said with a smirk as he pushed aside the vines, revealing a cave of some kind. “It’s a hidden passage.”

“Huh,” Riku remarked with a raised brow as he pulled back the vines a bit more. He entered the passage, Aqua right behind him, and the three of them made their way through. The passage seemed to continue onwards into a tunnel, and when they reached the other end, they found themselves in another clearing, surrounded by high rock walls and a waterfall. And at the center of the clearing on a small hill was a thin tower, nearly 70 feet in height. 

“What is this place?” Aqua questioned as they walked around the clearing. She noticed that the rock walls were so high that you wouldn’t have known this clearing was here unless you could scale the cliffs or fly.

Riku also looked around curiously, when he saw someone familiar climbing down the side of the tower. “Hey, I think that’s Flynn,” he pointed out the figure, the three of them approaching the tower.

Just then long golden blonde hair came down from the single window of the tower, and sliding down the hair like it was a rope was a girl in a purple dress. The trio watched her curiously as she slowly set her bare feet down on the grass with a look of surprise.

“I’m free!” she cried out with joy as she ran past them, not noticing them in her excitement. “I’m finally free!” Riku looked to the others in confusion as they approached Flynn, who had just reached the base of the tower.

“Flynn!” Riku called out to him, gaining the man’s attention. When he saw them his eyes lit up.

“Hey, great to see you again!” he exclaimed. The group then turned when they heard the girl laughing, seeing that she was playing in the shallow stream at the bottom of the hill.

“Who’s she?” Aqua asked as the girl ran around some more, following some birds that flew by.

“That would be Rapunzel,” Flynn said with a roll of his eyes. “Give her a moment. I get the feeling this is her first time being outside.”

“Her first?” the three repeated curiously as they followed Flynn, who was now chasing after the blonde girl as she made her way to the secret entrance to the clearing.

Following Flynn’s brief explanation was an interesting hour of watching Rapunzel enjoying the outside world, her excitement getting to her, only to suddenly be overcome with guilt and sadness from disobeying her mother who, based on her mutterings, had told her to never leave the tower. But then her excitement came back as she ran around the clearing, only to turn back to disappointment, then to rebellion as she used her hair as a swing on some low hanging branches. Then, she was sitting at the base of a tree, crying into her hands. Riku, Aqua and Lea watched the young girl with worry in their eyes as Flynn leaned against the tree, trying not to be amused at her out-of-control emotions.

“You seem to be a bit at war with yourself,” Flynn remarked as Rapunzel wiped at her tear stained face.

“That’s… more than a bit,” Riku remarked with a frown. It was at that moment that Rapunzel finally noticed the three of them. She jumped to her feet with a gasp, and Riku noticed that she had a large black frying pan in one hand, holding it up like a weapon.

“Stay back!” she cried, surprising the three of them. “Who are you?”

“Don’t worry, blondie,” Flynn said with a smile as he pulled Riku to his side in a friendly gesture. “These are my sidekicks I was telling you about.”

“’Sidekicks’?” Riku questioned him. 

“Yeah,” Flynn continued as he presented them to Rapunzel with a flourish. “Let me introduce… uh…” He then gave them a nervous side glance.

“I’m Aqua,” Aqua greeted herself with a smile, getting what Flynn meant.

“I’m Riku,” the silver haired teen also added, seeming confused still. Lea stepped forward with a smirk.

“And I’m Lea. Got it memorized?”

Rapunzel looked over the three of them curiously before she eventually relaxed. That was also when a small green chameleon peeked out from behind her hair, sitting on her shoulder.

“It’s… nice to meet you,” she said shyly as she fidgeted on the spot, obviously not used to meeting so many new people.

“Yup, my sidekicks are pretty great,” Flynn said with a smug smile. Now Riku couldn’t take it as he grabbed Flynn’s arm and pulled him towards them, surprising the brunette.

“What’s with the ‘sidekicks’ thing anyway?” Riku questioned him with a frown, Aqua and Lea leaning in as well.

“Look, she really wants to see the lantern show at the kingdom tomorrow night,” Flynn whispered to them as Rapunzel watched them curiously. “I’m a nice guy and agreed to take her there, but those monsters are a bit much for me. And you guys know how to handle them easily.” The three of them looked to each other curiously.

“Well, the Heartless are pretty dangerous,” Aqua said in agreement, Flynn going “uh huh” as he gave them a thumbs up.

“And you obviously aren’t that good at fighting them,” Lea added with a smirk, Flynn either not catching his sarcasm or having no qualms with agreeing to the statement. He then stood back and presented them to Rapunzel again. Riku gave a small sigh as he smiled at the blonde girl.

“Yeah, leave the Heartless to us,” Riku said.

“Great!” Flynn exclaimed as he presented the path ahead for Rapunzel. “So, shall we continue?”

===

As the group made their way out of the clearing and through the woods, Riku couldn’t help but watch Rapunzel continue to grow excited as she examined the world around her. To help her walk through the forest easily, she had her long blonde hair bundled up and draped in her arms, the ends still dragging slightly on the ground as she walked.

“What’s the deal with her hair anyway?” Lea asked his team curiously, arms behind his head as they walked just behind the girl and Flynn, who was leading the way.

“I’m also curious about it,” Aqua remarked with a small smile. “I sense a strong light from her. Something about her seems… special.”

“But to have never seen the outside world in your whole life must seem pretty scary and amazing,” Riku said with a nod. “In a way, I know how she feels. Back when I was still on my island, I didn’t realize that there were as many worlds out there as the ones I’ve been to so far. I knew they existed, but to actually experience it first hand was more than I could imagine.” Aqua and Lea both nodded their heads in agreement. Aqua already knew of the other worlds from Master Eraqus, but actually seeing them made it more special, and Lea had spent his whole life in Radiant Garden, only learning about the other worlds through Ventus and that girl Ansem the Wise kept in his castle, the one who went missing...

“Oh, what’s that?” Rapunzel asked with a giddy smile, pointing to a large white fluffy object that blocked their path. “It’s so fluffy!” The blonde girl dropped her hair as she ran forward to examine it more. Riku gave it an odd look, then gasped when he could sense the darkness.

“Watch out!” Riku shouted as he ran forward. Rapunzel looked back at him curiously when a pair of yellow eyes peeked out from the fluff. Riku summoned Braveheart and knocked the Heartless back, Rapunzel crying out in shock when the Chief Puff revealed its full form. Suddenly, some of the fluff detached from its head and turned into Puffballs, nearly surrounding them. Aqua and Lea summoned their keyblades and ran forward, getting between the Heartless and Rapunzel.

“Go someplace safe!” Aqua told the girl and Flynn, who seemed to freeze on the spot when the Heartless spawned, Rapunzel now gripping his sleeve as she hid behind him. After a moment, Flynn looked down and gave a small smirk before it turned into a look of grief.

“Well, I hate to break it to you,” he said in a sorrowful voice, Rapunzel looking away from the wielders fighting the Heartless to look up at him in confusion. “But I’m letting you off the deal.”

“What?” she gasped as she glared at him.

“It’s too dangerous. You would be safer back home.”

“No!” Rapunzel shouted as she picked up her hair. “I am seeing those lanterns, no matter what!” She then ran forward and stood next to Riku, gripping her hair tightly as Riku looked to her in shock.

“Oh, come on!” Flynn shouted in aggravation, then shouting in fear as a Puffball started chasing him.

“Rapunzel?” Aqua questioned the young girl as she held her long hair like a whip, the sun reflecting off it in such a way it made it look like it was glowing. The blonde girl looked to the three of them with a determined smile.

“It’s okay. I’m not afraid to face them.”

Rapunzel was right about that. Even without a conventional weapon, she was still able to help the three wielders to take out the waves of Heartless that appeared by using her hair. She was able to grab them with her long golden locks and throw them around like ragdolls, sometimes right into the keyblades of the others, and if she was surrounded, she swung around on low hanging branches by her hair, knocking them back. Even Flynn ended up getting caught in the action unwillingly, hitting the Heartless around with the frying pan Rapunzel had been carrying before. Once the Heartless stopped spawning the group took a breather, Rapunzel and Flynn resting on a log next to a small pond while the three wielders scanned the area one last time for enemies before they dismissed their weapons.

“What were those ruffians?” Rapunzel asked the three of them as they returned to their resting place, brushing her fingers through her long hair.

“Those are the Heartless,” Riku said with a frown as he leaned against a tree, joined by Lea as Aqua sat down next to the blonde girl. “They are monsters that steal the hearts of others.”

“So, they… weren’t after my hair?” she asked as she gripped her hair tightly. Riku and the others looked at her in confusion.

“I’m pretty sure no one wants to cut or sell your hair for anything,” Flynn said with a groan, stretching his arms out as he stood up. “Are you ready to go or not?” After a moment Rapunzel nodded as she gathered up her hair and started following the young man, the wielders right behind them again.

“Is there a reason someone would want your hair?” Aqua asked the girl curiously, giving her a small smile.

“Well… it’s kind of a long story,” Rapunzel said as she stroked her hair. “When I was a little girl, I—oh!” Suddenly Rapunzel was distracted when they came across a small field of dandelions, the blonde girl running to the center of it with a bright smile as the seeds floated into the air. Aqua chuckled as she joined her, deciding to let her tell them when she was ready.

And this continued as they made their way through the forest, taking the occasional break when Rapunzel discovered something new. After Aqua made all the dandelions float into the sky with a small Aero spell, they found a family of rabbits that they ended up saving from a few Heartless. Then, Rapunzel ended up pulling Riku into a small pond to refresh in and have fun splashing each other, although the teen nearly went too far smacking the water with his keyblade, causing a big enough splash that they– along with a slightly annoyed Flynn and amused Aqua and Lea– got completely soaked. Luckily, everyone just laughed it off, even Flynn, eventually. Then there was an amusing moment when some birds decided to take a rest in Lea’s hair, most likely mistaking it for a nest, which aggravated the redhead but Rapunzel found it adorable and funny.

After an hour or so of walking through the forest they had to stop again when something new blocked their path: a large flower pod of some kind.

“What’s that?” Rapunzel asked curiously but keeping her distance. She knew to be weary of flowers now. Lea glared at the flower, getting a bad feeling but keeping silent about it. Aqua seemed to notice that he was getting tense.

“Are you okay?” she asked him, voice full on concern as she placed a hand on his arm. He looked at her with a half-smile.

“Yeah,” he said softly.

“I’ll check it out,” Riku said as he cautiously stepped towards the flower, everyone watching him silently. He walked around the flower, examining it, but it seemed just like any ordinary flower. However, when he reached out to touch it, the petals suddenly opened up to reveal a white figure with a hood and a pink scythe in hand, a familiar emblem on its chest.

“A Nobody!” Riku shouted as he jumped back when the Reaper swung its scythe down to attack him, missing him by an inch.

“I knew it!” Lea shouted angrily as he ran forward, summoning Flame Liberator and changing it into his twin chakrams that he threw at the Nobody. The Reaper screeched as it was engulfed in flames, but suddenly a few more Reapers and a few Dusks spawned when the first one fell.

“You two go on ahead!” Aqua told Rapunzel and Flynn, who had taken refuge behind her. “This type of enemy cannot be taken out with a frying pan, so you need to be someplace safe!”

“Don’t worry, fleeing is my specialty!” Flynn said with a smile as he took Rapunzel’s hand and they ran for it, the blonde girl reluctant but eventually giving in and following him. Once they made it out of the clearing, Aqua turned and joined in the fight.

===

Once the Nobodies were taken out, Riku and Aqua dismissed their keyblades with a sigh, but Lea kept a tight grip on his own, glaring at the ground where the Reaper first appeared.

“Something’s definitely wrong,” Aqua commented as she approached Lea with a frown on her face. “If something’s bothering you, Lea, then you need to speak up.” Riku looked to the redhead with a frown, wondering what was going on. Without acknowledging them, Lea looked to the sky and took in a breath.

“Marluxia, I know you’re out there!” he shouted, spooking Aqua and Riku. “Get out here, you pink haired bastard!”

“You don’t need to shout.”

Just then, a dark corridor appeared and a young man in a black coat with pink hair and amber yellow eyes appeared before them. Riku and Aqua tensed up and Lea growled at him. The man gave them a smirk as he stopped a few feet away from them.

“It’s a pleasure to see you again, Axel,” he said to the redhead, who huffed at the name.

“If you haven’t already noticed, I’m not ‘Axel’ anymore. Get it memorized.”

“A shame, really,” Marluxia said with a sigh. “But then again, you were always good at playing traitor, weren’t you?”

“Oh, I’m the traitor?” Lea growled. “Last I recall, you and Larxene had tried to pull a coup on Xemans!”

“But you are one, are you not?” Marluxia questioned, making Lea raise an eyebrow in confusion. “After all, why would the guardians allow someone once part of the same Organization as I to join their ranks? Unless, you plan to stab them in the back like you did with Vexen.”

Lea flinched when the memory of when he had been forced to kill Vexen for nearly revealing Xemnas’ schemes to Sora resurfaced. He caught movement out of the corner of his eye and saw Aqua stand next to him, giving him a worried look, making him look away in shame.

“You’re wrong about him,” Riku said as he stepped in front of Lea, glaring at the Nobody. “Everyone has done something they regret in the past, but that doesn’t define who they are now. I trust Lea, and nothing you say could change my mind.”

“Riku,” Lea muttered as he looked at the silver haired teen in slight awe. Marluxia only sighed at that.

“Pity,” he said. “But now I must ask you a favor.”

“And why should we do anything for you?” Aqua demanded from him, stepping forward as she flexed her fingers, ready to summon Master Keeper when needed.

“It is not much,” Marluxia said with a small smile. “Just that you keep that young maiden safe from the dark horrors of the world.”

“’Young maiden’?” Aqua repeated before her eyes went wide. “Rapunzel?” Marluxia’s smile seemed to grow at that.

“As you can tell, she is the light of this world. It would be quite…  _ tragic  _ if something befell her.”

“Is that a threat?” Riku said, summoning Braveheart but not yet preparing to strike.

“Merely a warning,” Marluxia said as a dark corridor appeared behind him. “Our end goal is not to clash, but compliment the light. So, use your keyblades… and keep Rapunzel safe.” And with that, Marluxia backed into the corridor and disappeared.


	10. Kingdom of Corona pt2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Just FYI, I took some creative liberties with the festival scene, since we know that Rapunzel and Flynn do a lot at the festival in the movie, but in the game, all Sora and the gang do is dance. Soooooo... I spiced it up a bit. Hope you enjoy!
> 
> Credit to cosmotomaton for being my creative and emotional support beta reader.

**Kingdom of Corona pt2**

“What did he mean by that?” Riku turned to Aqua as he and Lea dismissed their weapons.

“I knew I sensed a strong light from Rapunzel,” Aqua said as she rubbed her chin in thought. She then turned to Riku and Lea. “But, no matter what, Marluxia and the Organization think what they are doing is ‘right’, we need to keep her safe from them.”

“Yeah,” Riku agreed. When he noticed that Lea was being quiet, he looked up and saw the redhead was frowning, deep in thought. “You going to be okay?”

“Huh?” Lea looked up, noticing that Riku and Aqua were watching him with worry in their eyes. “Y-yeah…” he said, not seeming too sure of his own words. Aqua came to him and placed a reassuring hand on his arm, giving him a small smile.

“Don’t worry, Lea,” she said as he looked at her. “We’re here for you.” Riku also smiled as he nodded in agreement. Lea seemed to get a bit bashful as he chuckled, rubbing the back of his neck.

“Thanks,” he said softly, visibly relaxing.

“Now, let’s go catch up with them,” Riku stated as they headed back into the forest.

===

But, after another hour of walking, it seemed like they had gotten lost and were now walking through a dense marsh. It was so thick that they couldn’t see the sky, but it must have been night as it was pretty dark.

“How far ahead could they have gotten?” Aqua wondered as they stopped near a small clearing where they could see a small bit of the sky above them. Sure enough, the sky was dark with a few stars twinkling in the distance.

“If that pink haired bastard hadn’t bothered us, we wouldn’t be so lost,” Lea grumbled as he sat down on a log with a huff.

“Language!” Aqua said with a glare as she grabbed Lea by the ear, making him squeal in pain. 

“I’m sure we’ll catch up with Rapunzel and Flynn soon,” Riku said with a chuckle as he watched the two bickering, leaning against a tree. “But with it being so late, they might have taken shelter someplace. We should do the same and look for them tomorrow morning.” The others agreed with him with a nod.

After a moment's rest they started heading through the marsh again.

“Excuse me, good travelers,” a female voice called to them, making the trio stop. They turned and saw an older woman with long, tightly curled hair in a maroon dress and dark gray cloak approach them with a smile. “Do you know Rapunzel?”

Riku looked at his companions curiously before looking at the woman. Something about her didn’t sit right with him, and he could tell just by looking at the others that they felt the same. “Yeah, but we only just recently met,” he told the woman. “Why?”

“Oh, my apologies,” she said in a sickly-sweet voice and a sad frown. “I’m Rapunzel’s mother. The poor girl ran away from home, and I’m worried sick for her. Do you know where she is?”

“Oh,” Aqua said as she rubbed her cheek with nervous tension. “I’m sorry, but we got separated from her not long ago.”

“You what?” the woman asked them, her voice slightly strained, calm demeanor quickly fading.

“We’re looking for her right now, though,” Riku added. “If you want, we could look for her together.” The woman’s smile was replaced with a frown, eyes narrowed as she brushed off his offer.

“You are of no use to me,” she said as she left them, lifting the hood of her cloak up as she disappeared into the marsh.

“So… Rapunzel ran away from home?” Lea repeated what the woman said as he looked to the others.

“She did mention before that her mother forbade her from leaving that tower,” Aqua stated as she crossed her arms in thought. “Could it be… that what Marluxia said before held some validity to it? That she would be in danger out in the real world?”

“You’re just going to believe him?” Lea asked her in disbelief, eyes wide. 

“Not completely,” Aqua said as she looked at him. “But he did say we should protect her ‘from the dark horrors of the world’. What kind of darkness could put her in so much danger that she should never leave her tower?”

“Aqua’s right,” Riku said. “But, for now, let’s look for someplace to take shelter for the night.” The others nodded as they continued through the marsh.

===

After walking through the marsh for a while longer, they eventually found a small cave to take shelter in, sleeping on some moss and fallen leaves and taking turns being on guard. They had come across a few Heartless and Nobodies while moving through the marsh, so they needed to stay on alert in case more showed up when they were vulnerable.

The next morning, Riku found another way out of the cave by scaling a short wall, which led them to a narrow canyon. When they made it through, they found themselves in a different part of the forest. And somewhere in the distance they could hear two familiar voices.

“That must be them,” Riku stated as the wielders hurried ahead. When they came around a small bend they stopped and stared at the sight before them.

Rapunzel was hugging and petting a white horse with a saddle like it was a large dog– the horse even wagging its tail in excitement as the girl praised him– while Flynn was pressed against a tree, trying to get away from it. When Rapunzel looked up, she saw Riku and the others approaching them.

“Oh, you made it!” she exclaimed as she ran up to them, the trio smiling as she did.

“Good thing you guys are okay, too,” Riku remarked as he saw the white horse approach them, giving the newcomers a stern look that made them all nervous. “Who’s your new… friend?”

“Oh, this is Maximus,” Rapunzel said as she patted the horse on the neck. “He’s been chasing Flynn around for some time, but now we are all friends.” 

“As if,” Flynn said as he stayed as far away from the horse as possible, but Rapunzel ignored him as she turned to Maximus.

“Maximus, this is Riku, Aqua, and Lea,” she said as she introduced them to the horse, who leaned in and started sniffing them like it could tell if they were dangerous or not based on that. “They’re my friends, and have been helping me along the way.” Maximus then pulled back and nodded his approval, and it almost looked like it was smiling at them.

“Let’s go,” Flynn said, gaining everyone’s attention. “The kingdom is just up ahead.” And with that Flynn took the lead again with Rapunzel right behind him. Riku, Maximus, and the others took up the rear.

“Should we tell Rapunzel that her mother is looking for her?” Aqua asked the boys curiously as they started to reach what looked like a large lake where there was a bridge connecting to a town surrounding a large castle.

“Maybe after the lantern thing tonight,” Riku said as he watched Rapunzel run ahead with a bright smile on her face, Flynn just behind her as he smiled. “She said that she would return home afterwards, so we can wait until then. Don’t want to spoil her good mood.”

===

When the group crossed the bridge and entered the town, there were obvious signs that some kind of festival was going on, what with the streamers and banners hanging from the roofs of buildings, stalls and carts containing various goods scattered about, and the many people walking around, chatting and laughing. They realized that whatever kind of festival that was going on that day with the lanterns must be a big deal here. 

“Excuse us,” Aqua said politely as she approached one of the stall owners, Rapunzel and Flynn having already wandered off so the trio stuck together. “We are not from around here and were just passing through. What seems to be the occasion?”

“Oh, my, we don’t usually get tourists here,” the older woman said with a bright smile, handing them each a stick with a candy apple on it. “Here, dearies! My treat!”

“Oh, thank you,” Aqua said with a smile as they took the treats, giving it a lick.

“You’re welcome! So, the festival is to celebrate the birth of the princess, and every year it ends when we send up lanterns into the night sky,” the stall owner said, but her smile quickly turned into a sad frown. “However, 18 years ago, the princess was stolen from her crib the night after her birth.”

“That’s terrible!” Aqua exclaimed while the boys looked to her in confusion.

“But, if the princess is gone, why do you keep having the festival?” Riku asked the older woman.

“Because her birth is of great importance to the king and queen,” she said with a sad smile. “When the queen was pregnant with the princess, she became deathly ill and would have died, but the king saved her– and the princess– by feeding them a magical golden flower that is said to have amazing healing properties. The princess was born with beautiful golden hair similar to the petals of the flower, and to celebrate her birth the king and queen released a lantern into the night sky the day she was born.” The woman looked up towards the castle where the king and queen were most likely preparing for the festival. “They still hold the festival and release the lanterns every year in hopes that the lost princess will see them and return home.”

“What a sad but beautiful story,” Aqua said with a smile, the boys agreeing with smiles of their own. The kind woman gave them a bright smile as she opened her arms to them.

“Now, no more sad frowns! Go out there and enjoy yourselves!”

“Thanks again,” Riku said as they waved to her, eating their candy apples as they walked through the town. The woman was right: this was a festival, and they were meant for taking it easy and having fun. This must be the break that they needed.

They quickly rejoined Rapunzel and Flynn, followed along by Maximus. At some point Rapunzel had her hair braided up so that it no longer dragged along the ground, decorated in various flowers and ribbons. As the group enjoyed the festival, they played games and ate snacks together, and Flynn even bought Rapunzel a small purple flag with a gold sun embroidered onto it. Aqua could tell that Flynn seemed to be enjoying the festival along with Rapunzel, if the smiles he kept sending her way gave anything away. It seemed that the reluctant rogue had taken a liking to the blonde-haired girl.

“I never got the chance to ask you this before, but what brings you and your friends here, Riku?” Rapunzel asked the silver haired teen at one point. The two of them were sitting on a bench in the town square, eating small cups of a type of ice cream while Flynn, Aqua and Lea stood in line to get their own. Rapunzel’s was pink in color, most likely strawberry and Riku’s was green mint. “I may not have left my tower or seen many people in my life except for my mother, but I can tell that you’re not from around here.” Riku stuck his spoon into his ice cream before he replied.

“I came here from far away to look for a friend of mine,” he said with a small smile to hide the frown he had before. “His name is Sora. Something bad happened to him and now he’s running away from me, thinking it’s for the best. Aqua and Lea offered to come and help me find him.”

“What bad thing happened to him?” Rapunzel asked with a worried frown, the small chameleon, Pascal, peeking out from her shoulder to shoot its tongue out and lick the ice cream.

“He was… cursed, by some very dangerous people,” Riku said, thinking of the best way to describe Sora being corrupted by Xehanort’s darkness without needing to explain too much. “The last time I saw him, he told me he didn’t want to hurt me or our other friends, which is why he is running away and I’ve been looking for him.” After a moment Riku looked up to see Rapunzel giving him a sad frown. He then gave her a small smile as he sat up straighter. “But, you don’t need to hear me complain about that. It’s your birthday today: you should be having fun.” It took a moment but eventually Rapunzel smiled as she got up to join the others as they arrived at their sitting area, cups of ice cream in hand.

“It seems like you really care about Sora,” she said softly. “I hope you find him.” Riku gave her a warm smile as he stood up.

“What are you two whispering about?” Flynn asked them curiously, Rapunzel shooting him a bright smile.

“Secret,” she said with a giggle, making the man cock a brow in confusion. Aqua and Lea looked to Riku curiously, but he just waved his hand in dismission.

The group dispersed again as they walked around the square, checking out the booths and their wares. The keyblade trio joined together as they stopped at a colorful mosaic at the back of the square at the base of the castle walls. They examined it as a little girl came up and placed a small bouquet of flowers at the bottom of the mosaic where there were more flowers and several lit candles.

“It’s for the lost princess,” the girl told the three of them when she caught them watching her. Aqua looked up and examined the mosaic. On it she could see a man and a woman– most likely the king and queen, based on their attire– and in the arms of the queen was a baby with a full head of golden hair. The blue haired woman examined the girl in the mosaic closely. She seemed to look familiar.

Suddenly, music began to play behind them, so they all turned to see that a small band had started to perform. And at the center of the square was Rapunzel, dancing happily. Many people began to gather and watch her dance, clapping along with the music. As the young girl turned towards them, she reached out a hand to them. 

“Come and dance!” she called out to them. Aqua gave her a big smile as she skipped forward, taking the girls hand and they began to spin around, laughing as they did. Pretty soon, others got pulled in and started dancing along with them.

“I don’t think I’ve heard Aqua laugh like that since she’s returned to the realm of light,” Riku remarked as he watched them dance, the mentioned woman twirling around other dancers like a ballerina. Lea nodded in agreement, clapping along with the others. 

Just then, Aqua skipped towards the boys and looped her arms around theirs with a big smile. “You boys should join us,” she said with a laugh as she pulled them forward.

“No, wait—WAH!” Riku exclaimed as he nearly fell forward, Rapunzel taking his other hand and spinning him around. The silver haired teen could feel his face heating up in embarrassment as he tried to join in, nearly tripping a few times. He never really did anything like this when there were parties or festivals back on the islands, preferring to either play the games or watch Sora and Kairi dance. He looked up and saw that Lea was also extremely embarrassed, but he was smiling brightly as he laughed. Pretty soon, Riku’s cheeks began to hurt from laughing as well. He didn’t even notice when Flynn somehow joined in on the dance or when they all got pulled into a train and started dancing in a circle. Sora would be having the time of his life if he was here.

The music ended and the dancing stopped, everyone clapping and cheering. Riku looked up and saw that Rapunzel and Flynn were standing at the center of the square in each other’s arms, looking at the other with smiles on their faces.

“To the boats!” someone called out. Everyone stopped clapping and started to chatter with excitement, moving around the square. Riku joined Aqua and Lea as they wondered what was going on. Aqua noticed the stall owner from before talking to a large man at another stall and approached them.

“What’s everyone doing now?” she asked the older woman curiously, the man holding circular paper items at his stall.

“It’s almost time to release the lanterns,” she exclaimed when she saw the tourists from before. “After the king and queen release the first lantern after sunset, everyone else in the kingdom releases their own.” She then took three of the items from the man’s booth and gave them to the trio along with three small candles. “Here! Your own lanterns that you can release if you so wish to.”

“Thank you so much,” Aqua said with a bright smile as she took hers while the boys got their own. Riku popped the paper object open and saw that it formed a small paper lantern made with lightweight paper and golden suns painted on it.

“Even though the lanterns are meant for the lost princess, they do have multiple uses,” the woman said with a smile as she got her own paper lantern. “We also send them up with wishes for the coming year, such as having a fortunate year or for a good harvest. Whatever you desire, really.”

“Thanks,” Riku said as he waved goodbye to the woman, leaving for the docks with Aqua and Lea. When they reached the docks, Flynn was already in a boat with Rapunzel, Maximus sitting off to the side, watching them.

“We’ll be back later,” Rapunzel said with a smile as Flynn rowed the boat out to the water, away from the other towns folk who also decided to take boats. The three keyblade wielders got their lanterns ready, waiting until the right time to release them.

“So, what are you guys going to wish for?” Lea asked the other two after sitting in silence for a while, the sky and the kingdom completely dark now. “I’m wishing, when he comes back, to take Roxas back to Twilight Town, where we will buy all the sea salt ice cream we can afford and eat until we can’t eat anymore.”

“That sounds awful,” Aqua said with a chuckle, the boys laughing with her. She then looked down at her lantern.

“Mine is that Terra and I will wake Ven, and that we will make it through this journey safely, together,” Aqua said with a smile, running a thumb over one of the painted suns on her lantern. Riku looked down at his lantern, then pulled out Sora’s crown charm from his pocket, examining it with a smile. 

“Mine is to find Sora, and bring him home,” he said, holding the charm to his heart. The others looked to him with warm smiles on their faces. “Of course, I’ll bring him back after I smack some sense into him, for being an idiot and running off like that.” The three of them broke out into laughter at that again. 

When the silver haired teen looked up to the sky, he could see something small and glowing flying above their heads. “Look!” he pointed it out, the others looking up in awe when they saw one lantern floating into the sky. Then there was another, and another, and soon the dark night sky had lit up with what looked like a thousand glowing lanterns. The once dark sky and waters were now glowing with a warm golden light that reminded them of the sun, much like the designs painted on their lanterns. With Lea’s help, they lit the candles of their lanterns and smiled as they released them into the air, one by one.

For Terra… 

For Ventus…

For Roxas…

F̴͖̩́ o r ̵͙̌͆̂ ̴̗̑͘ ̴̮̯͊͂ ̸̯́̓͘X ̷̖̓͌̈́ ̶̞̉̃i̷̠̞̫͛̀ ̷̛̛̩̾ ̶͖̼̥̏̈́̍o̸̠̤͖͐ ̷̛͇̜̅ ̸̰̫̞̇n̶͉͖̈̉ ̴̧͂̂̀.̷̜̀ ̷̬͔͋̈̐.̸̠̹͛͜ ̸̪̦̠̽.̷̝̿ ̶̗̰̞̒͋̐

For Sora…

Once the lanterns floated into the air, dancing around each other along the way, the three friends sat back and watched with awe and hope for the future. If only they knew that the journey ahead would get harder before the end.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Eh! Ehhhhh!! Bet you saw what I did there at the end...  
> It was kinda last minute, but I wanted to include something!


	11. Kingdom of Corona pt3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I took some creative liberties here and there again, and while I feel that this chapter was the shortest one in the arc (probably could have added more to the fighting scenes, but I'm still not that good at writing them and don't feel very confident that I would do it justice), I like how I ended it. The next chapter will be something of an intermission/interval chapter, so you get a bit of a break from the Proud Parent Squad for a week.
> 
> Credit to cosmotomaton for beta reading and being a swell pal!

**Kingdom of Corona pt3**

Their time of peace was short lived as the three of them soon sensed the presence of darkness behind them, making the trio groan. They stood up and turned to see several Dusks and Reapers spawning in the empty courtyard connected to the docks.

“They couldn’t have picked a worse time to appear,” Riku growled as he summoned Braveheart, taking down a Dusk before he charged for a Reaper.

“They just don’t know when to sit back and appreciate something,” Lea said with a glare as he took out a few more Nobodies with a Firaga.

“Then we should just end them while they are here,” Aqua added as she activated Spellweaver, taking out a good portion of them while freezing those that got too close.

With their combined team effort, the Nobodies were dealt with and no more spawned, even as the trio waited with bated breath. After a few minutes, they dismissed their weapons and looked out at the water. Most of the lanterns had disappeared into the night sky, only a few staying behind, leaving only a little bit of light, but just enough for the three of them to notice that Rapunzel and Flynn were not in their original place.

“Where did they row off to?” Lea questioned as they scanned the water. “Maybe they came back while we were fighting?”

“But then they would have met up with us by now,” Riku remarked. Aqua started getting a bad feeling in her stomach as she looked further out across the water. Just then she noticed a boat on the shore across from them.

“That must be them,” she said as she pointed out the boat. It was too dark to see any movement, but it was the best they could do from here. “We should investigate.”

A few minutes later they were outside the kingdom, walking along the sandy shore across the water towards the boat. When they got there, they couldn’t find anyone in it, but they did notice two female figures walking off into the forest, one of them with long blonde hair.

“It’s Rapunzel!” Riku stated when he noticed the blonde girl. He couldn’t tell as it was so dark, but the other figure looked like the woman claiming to be her mother, an arm wrapped around the girl. Riku started to follow them when a dark corridor blocked his path.

“Show some decorum,” Marluxia said as he appeared from the darkness, making the trio glare at him. “The girl has found her dear mother, so let them be.”

“And why does that matter to you?” Riku demanded from him as he tried to look past him, seeing Rapunzel disappear into the forest.

“Because she is far too important,” Marluxia said. “She must remain out of sight within her tower, and live out her days with Mother Gothel.”

“And what, keep her locked away like in a cage?” Lea said with a sneer, making Marluxia smirk at the redhead.

“Exactly like that.” The three wielders looked to him in shock as he looked over his shoulder where Rapunzel disappeared to. “Rapunzel’s hair holds the magical power of healing. And yes, Mother Gothel wants it all for herself.”

“Magic healing hair?” Aqua reiterated with a shocked voice, drawing the attention of the other boys. “The stall owner at the festival told us a story… about how the princess was saved as a baby with the aid of a magical flower that held healing properties, and then she was stolen away the next day. That’s why they hold the festival on the princess’ birthday… The same day Rapunzel was born…” Aqua gasped in realization when she looked up at Riku and Lea, their eyes growing wide.

“Rapunzel is the lost princess?” Riku declared in shock, turning back to Marluxia. It all made sense now: how Rapunzel was drawn to the lanterns that appeared only on her birthday, and how her magical hair was tied to the same flower that saved her and the queen. “Then that means Mother Gothel isn’t her real mother! She’s the one who stole her away!”

“And if her actions will protect her, preserve her… then she is doing the Organization a favor,” Marluxia said with a smirk, making the trio glare angrily.

“What do you want with her?” Aqua demanded as she stepped forward, ready to fight to get past him if needed.

“Let’s just say she’s keeping Rapunzel safe for us,” Marluxia said. “An extra pawn in case you fail to find replacement guardians of light. A new Seven Princesses of Hearts to fill out the ranks.” Riku remembered Xigbar saying something similar back on Olympus, about how they would need to get new guardians if Sora ‘fell too far’. 

“So, you just plan on using her for her light!” Aqua exclaimed as she summoned Master Keeper. “Well, I won’t allow that! She deserves to know the truth, to be with her real family!” Marluxia glared at her.

“If you plan to make a scene, then I will need to put you out of commission.” Marluxia then raised his hand and sent a wave of darkness at her.

“Look out!” Riku shouted as he pushed Aqua away, taking the blast himself.

“Riku!” Aqua and Lea shouted when Riku was thrown back, landing on the sand with a dazed look. Everything had turned hazy, and he couldn’t keep his eyes open. Marluxia clicked his tongue, but just smirked as he turned away and opened another corridor.

“This ought to keep you busy,” he said as nearly a dozen Dusks spawned along with a few Reapers, surrounding them as Riku’s vision quickly turned dark. “Don’t want your precious friend to be taken by the darkness while he sleeps, now do you?”

===

It took many hours before the Nobodies stopped spawning, leaving Aqua and Lea exhausted as they collapsed to the ground, gasping for air as they dismissed their keyblades. The waves had continued for so long that the sun was just starting to peek over the horizon.

“Riku?” Aqua gasped as she crawled over to the teen, running a hand over his hair. “Riku, answer me!”

“Marluxia said he was asleep,” Lea gasped as he leaned over to check on Riku, seeing the even rise and fall of his chest. “It must have been a sleeping spell he cast on him. That was always his thing, before.”

“But why hasn’t he woken up?” Aqua asked him, voice full of worry. “And why did he have to take the spell for me?”

“He must not have wanted you to get hurt,” Lea said with a strained smile, covering his own worry. “We didn’t know that it was a sleeping spell. He must have done it to protect you.”

Those words must have struck something in the woman as her eyes filled up with tears, but she quickly shook her head as she held them back. “It was still a stupid thing to do,” she said, her voice wavering slightly. Lea chuckled as he leaned back on his arms, looking up at the sky.

A few minutes later they heard the sound of hoof beats. The two looked up and saw Maximus galloping towards them, Flynn on his back, only to come to a sudden halt next to them.

“Whoa, what happened?” the rouge asked them, looking over their disheveled appearances, his eyes landing on Riku. “Is Riku okay?”

“He got hit with a sleeping spell and won’t wake up,” Lea said as he sat up better, looking over at the sleeping teen. Flynn stroked his chin in thought.

“An unresponsive sidekick…” he murmured as he looked over the teen. His eyes then lit up with an idea. “I got it! Max, give him a wash!” The white stallion neighed as he stepped forward, leaned down, and gave Riku a nice long lick up his face. Aqua and Lea watched in amusement as the horse did it a few more times before the teen let out a groan, his eyes blinking open.

“Riku!” Aqua gasped with joy, smiling brightly while Flynn smirked and Maximus grunted happily.

“Good job, Max,” Flynn said as he patted the horse’s neck, making it beam with pride.

“What happened?” Riku asked as he sat up with some help from Aqua, wiping off the horse saliva on his face. The woman gave him a glare as she smacked him across the back of his head, making him yelp in shock.

“That was for taking the attack for me,” she said with a frown, but it quickly melted into a smile as she hugged the boy tightly.

“I did what…?” Riku mumbled in confusion, still in a daze until the memories from last night rushed back to him, making him gasp. “Rapunzel’s in danger!” Riku stated as he got to his feet along with Aqua and Lea.

“Yeah, she’s being held prisoner in Mother Gothel’s tower,” Flynn said with a frown. “Some weirdo with pink hair let it slip while his goons attacked me. Now it’s time for a rescue. You guys with me?”

“Yeah,” the trio exclaimed together.

===

Once they’d figured out how to get four people to fit onto one horse, Maximus galloped through the forest as fast as he could go with the extra weight, making a beeline for Rapunzel’s tower. After making it through the canyon and the marsh, they were not much farther away when multiple Heartless and Nobodies spawned in their path, blocking the route ahead. Most likely sent by Marluxia to stop them.

“You go on ahead and help Rapunzel,” Riku told Flynn as he, Aqua, and Lea got off Maximus and summoned their keyblades.

“Thanks,” Flynn said with a smile as he directed Maximus around the enemies, the three wielders dispatching them quickly before they had a chance to follow them. Once they were gone, they ran through the forest the way Flynn had gone, taking out more enemies as they spawned. As they got closer to the secret passage to the hidden clearing, more enemies kept appearing, draining their energy as they continued on.

“There’s too many of them!” Aqua exclaimed as she took out a few Dusks with a Blizzaga. The young woman and Lea were both still worn out from fighting the Nobodies most of the night and had yet to take a break.

“Then just ignore the small fry and book it!” Riku shouted as he took out a Shadow in front of him and ran for the hidden entrance, Aqua and Lea right behind him as they ignored the remaining Shadows and Dusks. They made it into the clearing, the tower still there on top of the hill as the light of the rising sun cast an eerie glow on it as it peeked over the cliff side. The teen didn’t know why, but he had an uneasy feeling that something bad was going to happen. “Let’s go,” he said as they ran for the tower.

Just as they reached the base of the tower, they heard a scream. The three of them looked up and gasped when they saw someone fall from the window. Based on the cloak wrapped around their figure, it was Mother Gothel. The falling figure suddenly stopped midair and was engulfed in darkness. The trio jumped back as Mother Gothel was transformed into a large tree-like creature with four arms and an almost snake-like body, the Heartless emblem on its forehead between its large yellow eyes. The monstrous Heartless let out an ear-piercing shriek as it came after the three guardians.

===

After some time, Riku was able to deliver the killing blow on the Mother Gothel Heartless, the creature giving out one final shriek as it was engulfed in light and vanished. The trio stood there in shock, gasping with exhaustion after having fought the creature for who knows how long. Riku gasped as he looked up at the window near the top of the tower.

“Rapunzel!” he shouted as he grabbed onto some vines attached to the tower and pulled himself up, trying his best to climb the tower with the others right behind him. Aqua had used up all her magic in the fight and couldn’t summon any Aero spells to launch them to the window, so they had to make do the old-fashioned way. After some time, Riku pulled himself up onto the large window sill, sitting on the edge as he gasped for air. That was when he heard someone crying. He looked up and gasped at what he saw.

In the center of the room, Rapunzel was on the floor with Flynn in her arms, crying softly. Her hair had been cut at the nape of her neck, her now short hair a dark brown while the rest laid around her, also dark from its loss of power. Flynn was mostly limp in her arms, gripping his side tightly as he grimaced in pain. Riku saw to his horror the blood oozing past his fingers, a long bloody dagger a few feet away.

“S-stay with me, Eugene,” Rapunzel sobbed as she took his other hand and placed it against her cheek. “ _ ’F-flower, gleam and glow… Let you p-powers shine…’ _ ”

“Rapunzel…’” Flynn gasped as he opened his hand and cupped the girl’s cheek softly, his voice growing weaker. Riku could sense Aqua and Lea joining him on the window as he also heard them gasp softly.

“Y-yes?” Rapunzel sniffled, looking down at the man. He gasped a few more times before he gave her a small smile, his darkening eyes full of love.

“You… were my new dream…” Rapunzel choked on a sob as she gave him a wet smile.

“And you were mine…”

And at those words Flynn closed his eyes and gave his last breath, going completely limp in Rapunzel’s arms. The young girl’s body shook softly with her cries as she hugged him tightly. Riku heard a small sniffle and turned to see Aqua with a hand over her mouth, eyes filling with tears as her shoulders shook. He took her other hand in his own and gave it a squeeze that she returned. Lea looked over to his friends with sorrow in his eyes, wrapping an arm around them both. The three friends could hear Rapunzel sing something softly.

_ “’Heal what has been hurt, _

_ Change the fate’s design, _

_ Save what has been lost, _

_ Bring back what once was mine, _

_ What once was mine…’” _

The room went completely silent except for Rapunzel’s pain filled sobs, large tears rolling down her cheeks and falling onto Flynn’s.

Just then, the room began to fill with a soft golden glow that grew brighter by the second. Riku looked up in confusion along with Aqua and Lea. Rapunzel soon noticed the light and looked up. Long strands of glowing golden light that bared a striking resemblance to her hair circled around the couple and the entire room, and then flowed into Flynn’s wound, forming what looked like a five-petal flower. Rapunzel watched in shock as the flower glowed for a moment longer before fading away, and that was when she noticed that the wound wasn’t bleeding anymore.

Everyone jumped when they heard a soft breath leave Flynn’s mouth, followed by a confused, “Rapunzel…?” Said girl looked down and saw Flynn blinking up at her.

“Eugene!” she gasped happily. Flynn blinked a few times before he gave her a small smirk.

“Did I ever tell you that I’ve got a thing for brunettes?”

“Eugene!” Rapunzel cried out as she wrapped her arms around him, Flynn hugging her back tightly. Riku let out the breath that he had been holding in the whole time as he visibly relaxed. Aqua let out a happy tear-filled laugh as she wrapped her arms around Riku in a warm hug, joined shortly after by a smiling Lea, making the usually stoic teen stiffen up at the unfamiliar contact. After a moment Riku wrapped his arms around his friends as they hugged each other.

===

A short time later the whole group joined together again at the base of the tower along with Maximus.

“So, you are going to return to your real home now, Rapunzel?” Riku asked the now brunette girl with a smile, said girl beaming brightly.

“Yeah. I can’t wait to finally meet my real parents after so long.”

“The role of ‘princess’ will fit you perfectly,” Aqua said, making Rapunzel giggle bashfully, toeing the grass with a bare foot.

“And the kingdom couldn’t have asked for anyone better,” Flynn said with a smile, making Rapunzel blush even more. “And I couldn’t have asked for better sidekicks!” The three wielders chuckled at that.

“Well, good thing we haven’t seen any more Heartless or Nobodies lately,” Lea added. “But, just in case they come back, keep your eyes open for them.”

“Don’t worry about that,” Flynn said with a voice full of confidence. “I won’t let her out of my sight.”

“Aw, Eugene,” Rapunzel said sweetly as she took his hand in her own.

“Eugene?” the three wielders repeated in confusion. Flynn looked to them in confusion until he chuckled.

“Oh, yeah. Flynn Rider isn’t my real name,” he explained to them, rubbing the back of his neck with a smile. “It’s actually Eugene Fitzerbert. I never told you guys before.”

“Makes sense though,” Riku said with a smile, looking up to Flynn– no, Eugene. Rapunzel then gave him a small pout.

“Hey, I thought you were only telling me your real name,” she said to him, making the young man chuckle again.

“Oh, don’t worry,” he said as he leaned towards her. “I saved plenty of Fitzherbert-y secrets, just for you.”

“What are you love-birds whispering about?” Lea said accusingly, with an almost cat-like smirk on his face. Eugene and Rapunzel looked to the redhead in embarrassed shock.

“Th-that’s none of your business!” Eugene gasped at them, his face completely red. At his reaction Riku, Aqua, and Lea couldn’t help but let their laughter flow, followed by Rapunzel and even Maximus, getting Eugene even more embarrassed. Once their laughter died down, Rapunzel smiled at them.

“Will we get the chance to see you all again?” she asked them curiously.

“Maybe one day,” Riku said with a nod. “Once I find Sora, I’ll bring him back for the festival next year.” Rapunzel smiled brightly as she ran up to Riku and hugged him tightly, making the silver haired teen freeze up in shock.

“I wish you luck on your journey,” she said softly as she continued to hug him. After a moment Riku gave her a small smile as he hugged her back.

Not long after Eugene and Rapunzel got on Maximus’ back and headed for the kingdom, the three wielders waving goodbye to them.

===

Sometime later, Riku, Aqua, and Lea were back in the gummiship, flying to the next world as a new gate opened for them. Riku set the ship for auto-pilot as the other two stretched out, yawns escaping them as they did. They really needed a break after fighting so many Heartless and Nobodies without taking a rest at all, and their next destination would take a few hours to arrive so now was their chance.

“That festival sure was a lot of fun,” Aqua said as she curled up on one of three cots set in a separate compartment below the cockpit, out within moments of her head touching the pillow as she snored softly. One of the various addons Donald and Goofy added to the ship were resting areas for when they had long trips ahead of them, or, if they needed to sleep after a lot of fighting and were low on Potions and Ethers.

“So, do you really plan on taking Sora back next year?” Lea asked the silver haired teen as they got in their own cots.

“Yeah, Sora would love it,” Riku said with a small smile as he heard Lea take in slow even breaths, falling asleep just as quickly. As Riku closed his eyes with the crown pendant in hand, he could almost imagine being back in that square with Aqua and Lea, Rapunzel and Eugene dancing at the center of the square as the music played while all their other friends danced around them. 

And, next to him, an arm locked around his own, was Sora dancing away with a bright smile on his face.


	12. Interval: Cat-and-mouse

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first intermission/interval chapter of the story. I wanted to add in a few of these here and there to show that not only the journey to the different worlds is different, but that the background story for the other characters is also different. 
> 
> I only have one intermission bit here, but I might add another interval later today or sometime before the Proud Parent Squad gets to the next world because this chapter is pretty short. Not sure just yet. Pretty much, main chapters are guaranteed to be updated every Friday, and if an interval chapter(s) is finished before the next major update and occurs after the most recent update, then that will be updated sooner.
> 
> Credit to cosmotomaton for beta reading and helping me fill in the blank spaces!

Back on Corona, a singular black coat watched as the gummiship raised into the air, hovering in place for a moment before shooting off into the sky. The black coat was sitting on the edge of a cliff, hugging their knees to their chest as they watched the gummiship disappear into the distance.

“Man, you’re a real pain in the ass to track down,” a male voice called out, the black coat flinching as they quickly got to their feet. They turned around and saw Xigbar approaching them, stopping a few feet away as he placed his hands on his hips. “Just give up on your little game of cat-and-mouse, because pretty soon you’ll slip up and get caught, like right now, Sora.”

The black coat lowered their hood to reveal Sora glaring at Xigbar, skin paler than normal and bags under his eyes heavier than before. He continued to glare as Xigbar let out a chuckle when he saw the teen’s appearance.

“Wow, when was the last time you had a proper sleep?” he asked him in a mocking tone, one of his hands glowing as he summoned one of his guns. “A week? Maybe more?”

“And whose fault do you think it is?” Sora asked the other as he summoned the Kingdom Key. “You won’t leave me alone long enough.”

“Maybe if you stopped being a punk and came with me, then I might actually let you have a nap before taking you to Xehanort.”

“I’ll never join the Organization!” Sora declared, dropping into a fighting stance at the same time Xigbar did. “I won’t let my heart give in, because I have my friends to protect, unlike you has-beens!”

“We’ll see about that,” Xigbar said with a smirk as he did a quick-draw, shooting at Sora. However, the teen seemed to anticipate the attack and dodged just in time, throwing his keyblade at the sharpshooter. Xigbar blocked the attack and was ready to shoot back, but Sora had vanished in a flash of light, reappearing right in front of the older man, keyblade in hand. With a battle cry, Sora used Ars Arcanum, not letting Xigbar get a chance to strike. 

Xigbar cursed when he saw that he was trapped, he used the darkness to phase away from the teen, reappearing a few feet away. He quickly reloaded his guns and turned back to his opponent, only to frown as Sora summoned a dark corridor and disappeared, the shadowy portal vanishing within seconds. Xigbar straightened up and dismissed his guns, his frown replaced with a smirk as his golden amber eye glinted in the sunlight.

“Run while you can, Sora,” he said to the emptiness of the forest. “Doesn’t matter to me if the old man wins or loses, so long as you fall to someplace so dark not even your little boy-toy can find you…”

===

Sora gasped as he collapsed to the ground of the world he landed in, the dark corridor fizzling away behind him. He detested using the corridors, always feeling dirty after passing through the darkness to travel to the different worlds. Even though the black coat he had stolen from Axel kept him safe as he traveled the lanes between, it still felt wrong. Maybe he should have taken King Mickey’s star shard before he ran away from the Mysterious Tower. 

After a few minutes of rest, Sora got to his feet and examined his surroundings. It looked like he was in a dense forest, the warm golden sun shining through the trees to give it an unearthly glow. This place seemed familiar to the teen as he continued to look around. He then heard something that sounded like a fight. He followed the sound until he came across a small clearing, and when he saw who was there he quickly hid behind a tree.

In the center of the clearing was Kairi, swinging her keyblade, Destiny’s Embrace, to attack dummy Heartless and Nobodies, created out of wood and straw and moving with magic. She was wearing the new outfit Yen Sid had made for her, minus her vest which was laid across a nearby rock. 

Now Sora knew why this world seemed familiar: it was the first world the dark corridors took him to after he ran away from the tower. He had been hiding out in this world for days, trying to figure out what to do next, when Kairi and Axel showed up for their training. He had watched them in silence for a day or so before he snuck off again for a new world, but not until after he had snatched Axel’s black coat when he took it off before going for a wash after training.

Kairi continued to attack the dummy enemies when suddenly multiple balls of light appeared around her, and with a swing of her keyblade they shot out, taking out the rest of the enemies and finishing the exercise. Sora watched his friend in awe as she took a rest on a log, gasping as she grabbed for a bottle of water, taking a few sips from it after resting for a moment. “It’s so boring to train by myself,” Sora heard her complain as she wiped some sweat from her forehead. “Stupid Lea, running off before finishing his training...” But, then she gave a small smile as she looked up at the sky. “I just hope he finds Sora soon…”

Sora flinched when he heard her mention him, his eyes lowering to the ground as he walked away, pulling his hood back up. As he walked away, he missed Kairi looking in his general direction, cocking her head in confusion, like she had sensed that she was being watched.

===

Sora didn’t know how long he walked for before he collapsed under a shaded tree, letting out a long sigh. It felt like he had been walking for hours, but as no time passed in this world it was hard to tell. All he knew was that he was nowhere near where Kairi was, so he didn’t have to worry about bumping into her. The act of running away from his friends, even after Riku had offered assistance back in Twilight Town, really hurt him, but… He felt like that they would be disappointed in him for letting himself get possessed- especially Donald, who would no doubt pick on him for the rest of his life- or, worse, they would be unable to fix him. He feared that he would always have a piece of Xehanort inside of him.

He heard the sound of a dark corridor forming and looked up in annoyance, wondering which Organization member had followed him this time. At this point, anyone besides Xigbar and the Xehanorts would be preferred. However, his minor hopes were dashed when he saw a talking Heartless approaching him, swaying around slightly. Sora jumped to his feet and summoned his keyblade. These things didn’t know when to leave him alone, always following him, attacking his friends while calling out his name in those creepy voices. With a growl, Sora ran at the Heartless with the intent to kill it.

But, he stopped just a foot away, looking down at it as it stared up at him, cocking its head to the side. After a moment, Sora dropped his arm to his side, keyblade vanishing as he continued to stare at the creature of darkness.

“What even are you?” Sora asked it, thinking it wouldn’t answer despite being able to talk.

“Lost… heart…” it said in a rough voice, Sora’s brows shooting up in shock. It then raised one of its large gloved hands and pointed at Sora’s chest. “C-connect… tion… Help…”

“You want to help me?” Sora asked it curiously as it dropped its hand. “But, how?” Sora watched as the Heartless took his hand and pulled him towards a dark corridor which had formed. The teen was reluctant to enter, but the Heartless simply squeezed his hand gently, like it was reassuring him that he would be okay. He took in a deep breath and followed the Heartless into the portal.

A moment later, Sora blinked and found himself in some dark dimension, a single road of white sand stretching ahead of him. He looked up and saw just down the road was an oddly shaped castle. A castle he was sure he had seen before.


	13. Monstropolis pt1

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Time for the Monstropolis arc! I had fun writing this one and designing the squad's monster forms! Maybe one day I'll post my drawn designs of them.
> 
> Also, I'll probably start slowing down the updates from here as I've almost completely caught up with what I had written when I first started posting this story (I had several chapters already done at the start), and with my personal life getting in the way, updates might start becoming infrequent. Just a heads up.
> 
> Credit to cosmotomaton for beta reading and being a good ear to rant to about KH's convoluted plot!

**Monstropolis pt1**

A few hours later, the gummiship landed on the new world, taking shelter in what looked like an abandoned warehouse. It was dark out, most likely nighttime, from the lack of seeing a sun in the sky, so at least they landed without being noticed. Now fully rested, Riku and the others disembarked the ship and left the warehouse to examine where they landed. It seemed like they were in an industrial part of some kind of city, not too far away there was a dome shaped building. Riku turned to his friends as they approached the building.

“Let’s see what’s inside,” he said to them, the others nodding in agreement. They headed towards the building—

Wait a second.

Riku froze and quickly turned back to “Aqua” and “Lea”. They all looked at each other for a second longer before they jumped back with cries of shock, summoning their keyblades in defense. “MONSTERS!” they all screamed in union, ready to fight.

But after a few seconds of staring, Riku realized that the two monsters carrying Aqua’s and Lea’s weapons were, in fact, Aqua and Lea themselves. Except, they didn’t look like themselves, at first glance.

Aqua’s skin had turned completely blue and smooth like that of a dolphin, her bodice and shorts having melded with her body to look like patterns instead of clothes. Her half skirt had turned into fins, along with her hair, and her two blue eyes turned into a singular blue eye with black sclera in the center of her face. Out her back Riku could see a three-pointed tail swish back and forth in agitation and a dorsal fin on her back. Her hands and feet had also grown and the fingers and toes sharpened into claws.

Lea – in a way – reminded Riku of the Beast he saw in Hollow Bastion: tall, covered in fur with two horns, deadly claws, and long sharp fangs that pushed past his lips. The differences between them were that Lea’s fur was a fiery red like his natural hair that faded to a bright yellow at the ends and he had a leaner build. He also had a long fluffy tail coming out the back and black stripes on his arms and legs, most of his clothes gone except for his jacket. And it almost seemed like he was taller, possibly because of his long limbs, his hunched back, and animalistic feet.

“Aqua? Lea?” Riku asked them cautiously. He was almost afraid to approach them from how different they looked. At least in Toy Box, they mostly looked like their original selves.

“Riku?” Aqua gasped as she squinted at him, her eye growing wide in shock. “Is that really you?”

“Huh?” Riku examined himself and saw that he, too, had changed into a monster. His whole body was covered in short, soft, gray fur with darker gray scales plating on his chest and stomach, most of his clothes gone except for his jacket, much like Lea. His toes and fingers had been replaced with black claws, and there were dark blue-gray stripes on his legs. He felt around on his head and noticed that his face was also covered in fur, there was a small, pointed horn on his forehead, and his ears had changed into pointed, cat-like ears. He felt something on his back and looked over his shoulder to see a short tail that ended with a fluff of fur, and a small pair of half-bird half-bat wings, reminding him of his old keyblade Way to Dawn. “What kind of world did we end up in this time?” the teen wondered as he flexed his clawed fingers.

“There’s something written on that building,” Lea said as he pointed at the building they had been approaching. Riku turned to see what he had indicated, and there he saw, in big letters, across the building above the entry, ‘We Scare Because We Care’. “That doesn’t sound very nice.”

“We should be careful, then,” Riku said as they walked towards the building. The teen tested one of the doors and saw that it was unlocked. He looked in and saw that it was a type of reception area with a large domed ceiling made of windows and a large map along one of the back walls. The floor had a design with a large M with an eye at the center. Near the reception desk were two more monsters– a large, blue furred one and a short, round, green one– and, a little girl, no older than 4 years old, between them. The blue monster picked the girl up and she squealed. 

“That girl is in danger!” Aqua shouted as the three of them ran forward. The blue monster perked up at their voices and turned to see the newcomers.

“Wonder who those guys are?” he said curiously.

“Sully, hurry, we need to hide the K.I.D!” the green monster yelled, dropping to a loud whisper when he got to spelling ‘kid’. The trio saw that the monster had a single large eye that took up most of its body.

“It’s okay, Mike,” the monster– Sully– said with a smile. “We’ve got nothing to hide.” Mike just groaned as he ran up to the trio, who had stopped just a few feet away from them.

“I-it’s not what you think!” Mike shouted, waving his arms at them. Riku cocked his head in confusion as Aqua summoned Master Keeper. “That kid just showed up out of nowhere! We need to contact the CDA to come and—” But, the monster went silent as Aqua pointed her keyblade at him.

“What are you doing, scaring that little girl?” she demanded with a glare.

“Wha—No, we’re done with scare power!” the monster said, waving his arms animatedly. Riku looked back up at the little girl and saw that she wasn’t scared at all. In fact, it looked like she was enjoying herself, watching the monster freaking out as she giggled behind her small hands.

“I think everything’s okay,” Riku said to the blue haired woman as he placed a hand on her shoulder, indicating to the girl as the blue monster set her down. “She seems happy.” Aqua looked up and saw that the girl was okay, smiling brightly as Sully patted her on the head. After a moment she dismissed her keyblade and knelt down, the girl walking up to her curiously.

“Hello,” Aqua said in a soft voice, smiling almost nervously at her in an attempt to not scare her. “What’s your name?”

“Boo!” the girl said with a giggle as she ran up to her, poking her on the cheek. “Mike Wazowski!” Aqua blinked her one eye in confusion while Riku held back a snicker.

“No, Boo!” the green monster said in a strained voice. “ _ I’m _ Mike Wazows—”

“Mike Wazowski!” the girl, Boo, squealed happily as she ran around Aqua, tripping over her tail only to jump back up with a smile. Now Riku and Lea were both holding back their laughter as they watched Aqua trying to calm the girl down. That must have been when Boo noticed Lea as she stopped at his feet, staring up at the red furred beast in awe.

“Uh, hey there,” Lea said in confusion with a wave of his hand, his tail swishing around slightly.

“Puppy!” Boo squealed as she pointed at Lea, making his large ears perk up in surprise. 

Now Riku was clutching his stomach from how hard he was trying not to laugh. Even Aqua was having a bit of a giggle. The blue monster from before chuckled at the display as he approached them.

“I guess Boo likes you,” he said with a big toothy smile. “Well, my name is Sully.” He then pointed to his friend. “And this is—”

“Oh, we know,” Aqua said with a giggle as she stood up, having to look away from Boo grabbing Lea’s tail, yelling “puppy” over and over again while the taller male tried to shake her off without hurting her. “You’re Mike Wazowski, right? My name is Aqua, and they’re Riku and Lea,” she said, pointing out the boys as they waved at them.

Just then Boo saw something that caused her to run and hide behind Sully, letting out small, scared cries.

“What’s wrong, Boo?” Sully asked her with worry. Aqua looked to her in confusion when she suddenly felt a familiar darkness behind her.

“Look out!” Riku shouted as he summoned Braveheart, taking out the Heartless as it jumped at Aqua. Aqua and Lea turned and summoned their keyblades as more Heartless spawned in the lobby area. But, something about these Heartless was different: normally, Shadows had round, black bodies and circular, yellow eyes and slow movements, but these had sharp, angled features with blue bodies, fast irritated movements, and narrowed red eyes. “What kind of Heartless are these?”

“How…” Aqua stammered when she saw the creatures, drawing Riku’s attention to her, seeing her glare so hard it scared him. “How are they back?!”

As she said that, more of them spawned, but when Riku saw the emblem on the largest one he noticed that it wasn’t the usual Heartless emblem.

“Why do these look familiar?” Lea wondered as he took out three smaller ones that tried to charge him, only to be annihilated seconds later.

“Less talking, more fighting!” Riku said as a medium sized one came at him. Behind them, Mike and Sully ran back to the reception desk where Sully placed Boo.

“Stay here, Kitty will be back,” he said with a smile as the little girl took cover. Once she was safe, the two monsters turned around and charged into the battle.

===

Once all of the enemies were taken out, Mike and Sully went to check on Boo while Riku, Aqua, and Lea huddled up.

“So, you two seemed to recognize them,” Riku said as he looked to Aqua and Lea. “What were they?”

“I’m not sure,” Lea said as he crossed his arms in thought. “I just remember seeing them around a lot when I was still living in Radiant Garden, 10 years ago.”

“They are called Unversed,” Aqua said, still glaring as she looked up at the boys. “Unlike the Heartless that are created when a heart falls to darkness, or Nobodies that are created from the empty husk of someone who lost their heart, Unversed are created from the raw negative emotions of others. While the Heartless did appear occasionally 10 years ago, the Unversed were the most dangerous at the time, so my Master had sent Terra and myself to destroy their source.”

“Oh, yeah, I remember now!” Lea said as he snapped his fingers. “Ventus told me and Isa about them when we first met.”

“So, what is the source of the Unversed?” Riku questioned the older woman. Aqua balled her fists tightly as she snarled, baring two rows of very sharp teeth as she did.

“ _ Vanitas _ ,” she spat out with venom in her voice. “That  _ freak _ is back…”

“Hey, so, who are you guys?” Mike asked as he approached them, drawing their attention to the monster. “And what were those things?” Riku and Lea looked at each other, trying to think of what to say as Aqua was still too pissed to really say anything.

“We came from really far away for a personal mission,” Riku told the monsters. “We normally take out dangerous creatures, such as Heartless and Nobodies, but the Unversed also count. Basically, anything that’s causing trouble that needs special weapons to be dealt with is what we deal with.” He emphasized this by summoning Braveheart again to show them, making the monsters and little girl stare in awe. “As for what they are, you can say they are… creatures, born from negative emotions,” he added, substituting their normal ‘monsters’ explanation for ‘creatures’: calling them by the former would most likely be seen as offensive in this world.

“So, you’re like exterminators?” Sully asked them as he placed Boo back on the ground.

“In simpler terms, yes,” Riku said with a half-smile, relaxing slightly as they accepted his story.

“Well, you did a good job exterminating them,” Sully said with a smile. “They sure gave Boo a scare.” The little girl looked up at Sully with a smile.

“I know it’s been a while since you’ve seen each other, but we need to cancel our play date,” Mike said with a frown to Sully. “It’s just too dangerous for her to be here right now.”

“I know, Mikey,” Sully said with a sad sigh. “Let’s get our girl home.”

“What do you mean?” Aqua asked as she stepped forward. It seemed like she had calmed down enough to talk to the others.

“It’s… kind of a long story, but Boo’s from another world,” Mike said as he looked down at the little girl. “We gotta send her back, to keep her safe.” The three wielders looked to each other before they turned back to the monsters.

“Then, let us help you,” Riku said, Mike and Sully looking at him in surprise. “The Unversed might show up again, so we want to come along to help keep Boo safe.” At the offer the monsters smiled brightly.

“Great!” Mike exclaimed as he held out his hand to the silver haired teen. Riku returned his smile with one of his own as he accepted the handshake, sealing the deal. “We could use a couple of exterminators!”

“Yeah, thanks,” Sully said. Boo also smiled as she giggled up at the monsters. Sully looked down and bared his teeth in a non-threatening way, making the little girl let out a squeal of delight as Sully chased her around the lobby, Mike laughing along. The three wielders chuckled as well as they followed them down a hallway connected to the lobby.

“We also need to find Vanitas,” Aqua said with a glare. “If we want to get rid of the Unversed, we need to deal with him.” Riku looked up at Lea in worry. It was obvious that Aqua would not rest until this Vanitas guy was good and gone.

===

“ _ Gotta send her back home right now, or so help me… _ ” Mike chanted in sing-song as he did a little jig down the hallway, Boo right behind him as she tried to match with his moves with a giggle. Riku, Aqua, and Lea trailed just behind them with Sully, who was telling them about the building they were in.

“So, Monsters Incorporated used to rely on scream power from human kids for energy,” he told the wielders after Riku asked him about the sign outside the building. “But now, we collect their laughter, instead. Turns out, laughs are ten times more powerful than screams.” The blue monster looked down at the little girl in front of him, who smiled up at him before running after Mike as he entered the Laugh Floor. “And we’d have never figured it out without Boo.”

“Huh,” Riku remarked as he watched Sully follow the little girl. “Too bad Sora isn’t here: he could provide you with enough laughs to power the city for years.” Aqua and Lea chuckled in agreement, making Riku smirk slightly.

“Who’s Sora?” Sully asked the teen, with a cocked brow. At the question Riku’s smirk was replaced with a small frown.

“He’s a really close friend of mine… You could say he got into trouble because of some dangerous people, and he ran away, thinking it was the right thing to do. We’ve been traveling around trying to find him.”

“And your travels brought you here?” Sully asked him, Riku replying with a nod. “Well, I haven’t seen anyone new around here besides you guys, but the factory is pretty big. We’ll help keep an eye out for him, as thanks for helping us get Boo back to her room.”

“Thanks,” Riku said, his smile back. “So, how do we go about getting Boo home?”

“To do that, we—“

But, before Sully could explain the process, they heard a loud scream. When they looked up they had entered a large room with desks lining one wall, and contraptions that had doors attached to them along the other, new ones being brought in via hanging rails from above. The cause for the screams were multiple Unversed running in and out of the doors, and to their realization, the screams were that of children being frightened by them.

“They’re back!” Aqua shouted as she summoned her keyblade, running ahead before Riku and Lea had time to react. Sully ran forward and picked up Boo, who was hiding behind Mike in fear while the smaller monster protected her.

“There’s Boo’s door!” Mike shouted as he pointed up at a white door covered in flower decals being carried away on the rail. Mike ran ahead to help the wielders fight the Unversed while Sully took Boo to a far away desk, away from the battle.

“You need to stay here and hide,” he told the little girl calmly as she hid under the desk. Once she was out of sight the blue monster let out a growl as he charged into the fight.

===

When the Unversed were defeated, Sully ran to check up on Boo, Mike shuffling around the desks looking for something, and the wielders huddled up again to check for damages. Mike then ran to three of the contraptions and swiped the card readers on each one with different cards, tossing them to the side when he was done. A moment later, three doors came down the rail and were brought down onto the contraptions with long, metal arms from the floor.

“We can use the doors to reach the vault,” Mike said with a smile as Sully joined them, Boo in his arms. “Just grab on when you’re ready.” Riku looked back at Aqua and Lea curiously before he approached the door.

“Like this?” he said as he jumped up and grabbed the edge of the door, feet holding him up.

“Yup!” Mike then pressed a button and the arm from before pushed the door up, attaching it to the railing. Aqua and Lea followed his example and held onto the second door tightly as Mike sent it up before running to grab onto Sully’s tail, his door already going up. Once they were on the railing, the doors were pulled along and they disappeared into a hole in the wall.

As they were taken away towards the vault, they missed a purple lizard monster watching them from the shadows of the Laugh Floor.

===

After going through a long tunnel, they ended up in a massive chamber filled with thousands of doors, the wielders staring in awe as the rail pulled them along. There were multiple railings pulling along doors everywhere, on and off the walls on both sides of them, where the walls of doors reached up multiple stories.

“There it is!” Mike shouted, pointing out Boo’s door again. However, the door was switched over to another rail while the monsters went the opposite direction, the wielders shouting as they ended up flying through the air when the railing took them down. They quickly jumped off the doors and landed on one of multiple platforms scattered around the massive chamber. When everyone was on the platform, Mike looked around and saw a door propped against a nearby wall. He ran up to it and opened it, but there was nothing on the other side except the wall. He groaned when he saw that the light on top of the door frame was off. “It’s offline,” he said as he closed the door. “We need laughter to turn it on, then we can use it and other similar doors to get around the factory quicker.”

“Interesting,” Aqua said as she rubbed her chin, looking around the vast chamber of doors. “So, you just need laughs to make it work?”

“Yup, but Boo’s specifically,” Sully said as he approached them, Boo still in his arms. “While any form of laughter can get a few doors up and running, the laughter of a human child would be able to run the whole factory easily for a few hours.” Aqua nodded as she smiled at Boo, making her giggle slightly.

Suddenly, several Unversed spawned at the other end of the platform. When Boo saw them she cried in fear, holding onto Sully tightly as he backed away from the creatures. Mike and the three wielders got in front of them, weapons in hand. They needed to keep her- and her guardian- safe from the Unversed.

“Once we take these guys out, we need to find a way to make Boo laugh!” Mike stated as they charged forward and attacked the Unversed.

While fighting the Unversed they were thankful none of the larger ones spawned, but, they were at least smart enough to realize that Sully was the most vulnerable, as he was trying to protect Boo. Because of this, he was constantly surrounded by them and the others kept having to take them out and force them back. Due to their help, Boo seemed to lighten up and did not seem as scared as when they first appeared.

They were now reduced to only a couple smaller Unversed which were huddled up together at one side of the platform while the three wielders and monsters were on the opposite.

“We just have a few left!” Mike exclaimed with a pump of his fists. Lea looked down at the monster when he suddenly had an idea, making him smirk in a way that showed off his large canines.

“I have an idea,” he said as he reached down and grabbed Mike, the green monster looking around in confusion. The others looked over curiously as Lea lifted him up in the air with one hand, holding him like a large ball.

“W-wait, what are you—“ Mike shouted before he let out a scream as Lea bowled him, causing the monster to roll into the Unversed, sending them over the edge of the platform to their demise while Mike came to a stop. His eye rolled around in his head, dizzy from rolling around without warning. Everyone stared in disbelief while Lea smirked and Boo let out a loud squeal of laughter, clapping her hands. 

Her laughter was enough to activate the door right behind them, and around a hundred other doors lining the walls as the little lights on the frames glowed red.


	14. Monstropolis pt2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about the slightly late update. Was busy doing stuff all morning and kinda forgot, lol!
> 
> Sorry if this chapter seems a bit rushed or short (even though I did enjoy writing certain scenes in this part). I had way more fun writing part 3, which should still come out next Friday. After that updates will start to become a bit infrequent. Just a heads up.
> 
> Credit to cosmotomaton for beta reading and putting up with me overall, lol

**Monstropolis pt2**

After taking out the Unversed and powering up the door, Sully led them through and they ended up on another platform somewhere else in the large chamber. They saw Boo’s door pass by on another rail and hitched a ride on some more doors to follow. At one point, Riku was daring enough to jump off of his moving door and make a grab for the decaled door, but missed and had to take a detour to another platform, joined shortly after by the others. Thankfully, this platform had an elevator which they took to the ground floor, searching the doors in the bottom part of the factory until they came to a turn.

“There it is!” Sully exclaimed when he saw the door, pink flower decals and all. He ran to it and entered it, followed by Mike with the wielders close behind.

“When did the door get here?” Riku asked his companions as they followed through. “Was it brought here by—“

But Riku didn’t need to finish when he realized that they were not in the bedroom of a little girl, but in another part of the facility.

“Wait, this isn’t right!” Sully exclaimed as he looked around in confusion. Suddenly, the group heard someone snickering behind them. They turned to see nothing there, until a pair of narrow eyes and a wide toothy smirk appeared in the air, spooking the wielders for a moment. 

“It won’t matter for long,” the disembodied face said as the rest of their body formed, revealing a purple lizard monster with two sets of arms and two sets of legs. “Because you won’t be getting in my way anymore after this.”

“Randall?!” Sully and Mike gasped in shock, glaring at the monster.

“Who’s he?” Riku asked them, looking up at Sully. 

“He was banished from the factory after he tried to take screams by force,” the blue furred monster said as he placed Boo down on the ground, the little girl glaring at the lizard. “He used to be Boo’s scarer.” The little girl made cute little growls at Randall before blowing him a raspberry, showing that she was not scared of him in the slightest anymore.

“How did you even get back here?” Mike demanded from him. “The door we sent you through is sawdust!” Randall huffed at him as he crossed his top set of arms, the bottom two on his hips.

“Yeah, and I almost got turned into someone’s wallet,” he said with a growl, but his smirk quickly returned. “But luckily for me, a real nice guy came along and fixed it up for me.”

“ _ Vanitas _ ,” Aqua snarled as she glared at Randall. He must be the only possible person responsible for that.

“And now that I’m back, I’m numero uno,” Randall said with a sneer. “The best, top of the leaderboard, baby.”

“You?” Mike asked with a chuckle. “Ha, like you could be a top laugh collector. In your dreams! My laugh totals are off the charts!”

“Who said anything about laughs?” Randall questioned them as he rubbed his chin. “I’m after negative emotions, and my new friends kindly invaded the factory to get ‘em for me.” Aqua growled at the mention of negative emotions while everyone continued to glare at him. Vanitas was definitely behind everything. “Laughs just aren’t sustainable, ‘cuz once junior chorts his last chortle, you’ll need to start over,” Randall continued as he walked around the group. “But negative emotions? Especially sadness? Give ‘em something that’ll really break their little hearts, and they’ll stay sad forever. We’ll never have to worry about energy ever again.”

“There is no way we’ll let you get away with that,” Riku declared as he summoned Braveheart, drawing Randall’s attention towards him. “Not you or the Unversed.”

“Just try and stop me,” Randall said with a sneer. “You wait and see. I’m gonna be a legend around this place. So, consider your careers officially over.” Randall let out a chuckle as he walked away, vanishing as his camouflage kicked in. 

===

With Randall back and causing trouble while taking control of the factory, the three wielders and monsters needed to step up their game if they wanted to keep Boo safe. Since Randall got them through the fake Boo door, Sully suspected that they were at the far end of the facility, and they would need to go through the factory and the power station to reach the door vault. 

However, when they reached the factory, there was static interference over the speakers before they heard a familiar voice.

_ “Just to let you know, I decided to add a few ‘improvements’ to the factory. Some real doozies I know you’re gonna love,”  _ Randall’s voice said over the speakers. “ _ In fact, you’re not gonna get out of here alive. _ ” Randall then let out another chuckle before the speakers shut off. Riku looked back at the monsters as they entered a room full of metal containers, mechanical arms, and a single long conveyor belt. 

“What do you think he’s got planned?” Riku asked the monsters. “You used to work with him in the past, so do you have any idea?” Mike frowned hard as he crossed his arms.

“Whatever it is, it can’t be good,” the monster said angrily. “That weasel will never quit! Not until the whole factory is his!”

“We’ll take care of him, but Boo comes first,” Sully said as he patted Mike on his round head. “For now, let’s just—“

“Look out!” Aqua shouted just in time for the three wielders and monsters to take cover when a sudden laser shot at them, leaving a scorch mark in the ground. Everyone looked up and saw the mechanical arms moving around erratically, shooting lasers at anything that moved too close to them.

“I think I know what ‘improvements’ Randall was referring to,” Sully said with a frown as everyone got behind a large metal container that kept them out of sight. Boo clung to his leg tightly, hiding her face in his fur. Sully picked up the little girl and held her close to him. “It’s too dangerous out there for her.”

“Then let us go ahead and look for a safer route,” Aqua said as she reached up and patted Boo on her head reassuringly, making the child smile at her.

“Yeah, two of us could act as distractions for those lasers and the other can go ahead and turn them off,” Lea suggested, looking over at Riku who nodded in agreement.

“Great idea!” Mike exclaimed with a smile, peeking around the edge of the metal crate with Riku. “At the other end of this belt is a small room in a cage. When you get there, you can turn off everything from the control panel.”

“Got it,” Riku said as he, Aqua and Lea quickly ran around the crate and on to the conveyor belt. 

Because of Aqua’s barriers and Lea’s quick reflexes, they were in charge of distracting the rogue arms, deflecting the lasers and dodging them while Riku ran ahead. A short time later, he found the cage with a control panel inside. He looked it over for a power button, and when he saw none he started pressing random buttons, looking past the grating to see what happened. When that didn’t work, the teen growled as he used Thundaga on it, short circuiting the control panel and making it smoke slightly. That did the trick, as the arms and belt shut down, and a moment later he was rejoined by his companions and the monsters, and they could move on from there. They ended up doing this a few more times with Randall constantly taunting them over the speakers and Unversed getting in the way, before they reached a warehouse with a large control panel next to a sliding metal door.

“Once we get that door open, we’re out of the factory,” Sully stated as he looked over the door, setting Boo on the ground. “This will take us to the power station, then, from there, the door vault.”

Mike ran over to the control panel and started pressing buttons while Riku and Lea watched him. “Drats!” Mike exclaimed as he slammed his fist into the desk. “Nothing works! Randall must have changed it!”

“I could just electrocute it like the others,” Riku said as he summoned Braveheart. Mike jumped back in shock at the offer.

“No way, have a little finesse!” the monster said, Riku just shrugging as he rested his keyblade on his shoulder. 

“Puppy!” Boo said as she grabbed Lea’s tail, making the redhead jump at the unfamiliar feeling.

“Would you knock it off?” Lea said as he glared down at her, trying to shake her off half-heartedly, making the little girl giggle. Aqua chuckled as she watched the exchange when her eye lit up with an idea.

“We could short circuit the control panel,” Aqua suggested, everyone turning to her. “All we have to do is make Boo laugh enough to cause a strong power surge. That should get the door to open.” Mike rubbed his chin in thought before he smiled.

“That just might work,” he said as he watched Boo grab onto Lea’s jacket, nearly making him fall over. “And I have an idea on how to get us started! Lea, get down on all fours!”

“Like… this?” Lea asked as he got down on his hands and knees, Sully’s brows rising as he realized what Mike had intended. Once he did Boo quickly got onto his back with a giggle, making the fire user look around in embarrassed confusion. “Don’t tell me…”

“Now get running!” Sully said with a laugh, Riku and Aqua chuckling as the fur on Lea’s face turned a darker shade of red from embarrassment. 

“You gotta be kidding me…” he groaned as he started running around the room on all fours like a real dog, making Boo laugh. As suspected, once the child started laughing the control panel started to give off some sparks, the screen and buttons flashing randomly.

“It’s working!” Mike cheered as he watched the panel.

Just then, more Unversed spawned in the room, making Boo cry out in fear. When Lea saw them, he pulled Boo off his back and got her to Sully, who grabbed her protectively.

“You will never speak of this again,” Lea threatened his friends before he summoned Flame Liberator. Riku and Aqua could only chuckle in response before they joined in the battle.

===

The fight against the Unversed ended similarly to how it did before, but this time Mike ended up tripping while charging the last few Unversed, crying out in shock. Aqua saw her chance and kicked the monster like a soccer ball, sending him flying into the group of Unversed with a bang, whipping them out. Boo let out a loud squeal of laughter when Mike came to a stop, eye rolling around in his head again as the Unversed disappeared, an imprint of a shoe on top of his head. The control panel sparked and flashed a bit more before the metal door slowly raised up, revealing another hallway.

“Door’s open!” Sully called to the others. Aqua helped Mike up with an apology for the kick before quickly joining the others at the door. “Now, we just need to cut through the power station.” But before they could leave, they heard a familiar chuckle behind them.

“Going somewhere?” Randall said as he appeared a few feet away, everyone turning to glare at him. “You wouldn’t leave without saying goodbye, now would you?”

“Give it a rest, Randall,” Mike said as he crossed his arms. “We won’t let you get away with this!”

“And anything you throw at us, we’ll throw back at you,” Sully said with a growl as he bared his teeth, the wielders summoning their keyblades. Even Boo growled at the lizard as she balled her little fists. Randall smirked at them, unafraid of their threats.

“Maybe you can, maybe you won’t,” the monster said. “But fortunately, I have another ace up my sleeve.” He then stepped to the side to reveal a metal contraption nearby that the group had missed. Everyone tensed as Randall raised a hand up. “Now… I order you to destroy them,” he said as he snapped his fingers.

But nothing happened.

Randall cocked a brow as he snapped his fingers again. Everyone relaxed as the monster turned to the contraption and snapped his fingers a few more times, grumbling when nothing happened. He then slithered over to it and examined it, yanking on its edges to try and make it move. After a moment, Mike chuckled.

“It looks like your ace is a joker!” Mike said, making Boo giggle and Randall growl even more.

“Stupid pile of junk!” Randall shouted as he kicked it before slithering away, vanishing as he did.

“I don’t think he’ll be much trouble anymore,” Sully said with a smile as everyone turned to leave the warehouse. “Now, let’s go find Boo’s door.” Together, everyone left the warehouse as the door slowly closed behind them.

But as they left, they missed a black coat entering the warehouse through a dark corridor. They raised a hand up to the contraption, a black sludge entering the crevices of the metal, the Unversed emblem appearing on a plain metal plate on top.

===

After going through another short tunnel, the group found themselves outside next to the power station. Sully directed them down a path that would cut through the station the quickest, but they were stopped early on when they saw the fires and more Unversed.

“Oh no…” Mike gasped when he saw the destruction. Everyone looked up when they heard a sound from above, being briefly blinded by a bright light as a helicopter flew by.

“Disregard Code 835,” a voice through a speaker called out. “72-16 in progress. We have visual on unidentified life forms.” Everyone followed underneath the helicopter until they were in a more open area, where a multi-armed monster wearing a full yellow hazmat suit descended from the helicopter on a rope. “Stand aside, civilians,” they said as more hazmat wearing monsters showed up with long hoses. “We’ll put the fires out, pronto.” But just as they said that, there was an explosion, and several of the monsters ran away when a large Unversed appeared.

“We’ll take them out while you focus on the fires,” Riku told the monster as he summoned Braveheart, Aqua and Lea doing the same before they charged the enemy. 

Because Sully had to keep Boo safe from the Unversed and the fires, the three wielders were on their own fighting them, but they had a better understanding in taking them out by now, so it wasn’t an issue. Aqua used water magic to take out some of the biggest fires the Unversed caused, making it easier to fight them while Lea forced the smaller flames back at their enemy, causing more damage to the Unversed than the environment. A short while later, the last Unversed was slain, and the hazmat workers came in with several hoses to put out the rest of the fires, the three wielders, Sully, Mike, and even Boo helping out when they could. Soon enough, the fires in this sector were out. Sully thanked the hazmat team- who Mike had stated were the CDA- before they moved on to the next area. They did this a few more times, taking out Unversed while helping the CDA put out a few more fires, until they reached the edge of the power station.

“It’s just down this way,” Mike said, indicating towards a path, but as they approached it, a tank near the path exploded. Everyone shouted as they ran away from the explosions, various tanks catching fire from a few flames they had missed. Once the last explosion was done, everyone looked up and saw the path was blocked by large pipes and other debris. “Now we’re really stuck,” Mike groaned, slumping in defeat.

“There must be another way,” Riku said as he crossed his arms in thought, Sully scratching his head.

“Kitty!” Boo called out as she pulled on Sully’s leg, making him look down at her curiously. The girl pointed at a large pipe that had fallen down, revealing another opening. When Sully saw this he smiled brightly.

“Great idea, Boo,” Sully said as he patted the girl on her head, making her giggle before the monster picked her up. “We just need to follow that pipe.”

“What are you talking about?” Mike asked him. “That leads to the cooling tank! Are you sure you don’t have any better ideas?” Sully looked down at him with a smile.

“Just trust me, Mike. I know what I’m doing.”

Mike wasn’t fully convinced but he did follow Sully and the wielders through the large pipe. They continued through until they reached the empty cooling tank and more Unversed, including a few bigger ones. It took a bit more effort to take them out, but once the threat was gone Sully examined the inside of the cooling tank a bit. He then saw some flimsy sheet metal plating nearby and smiled.

“I think Maintenance hasn’t finished this yet…” Sully stated as he approached the metal sheeting, pulling off one of the panels to reveal a decent sized hole in the tank, leading to a back area. “This way!” Everyone followed Sully curiously into the back area, leading to a large tunnel when Mike gasped in realization.

“This is right outside the vault!” Mike exclaimed as he looked around. Sully smirked at his friend with an ‘I told you so’ expression, making Mike smile. “If I didn’t know any better, I’d say you ran the place.”

“It’s not much further, now,” Sully stated as they made for the tunnel. As they continued on, Aqua noticed a slimy black sludge coating the floor of the tunnel.

“What is this?” she asked with a disgusted look, shaking her foot as the sludge clung to her. Everyone else noticed the sludge and groaned in disgust as well, Boo sticking her tongue out as she mumbled an “ew”.

“It looks like a trail of some kind,” Lea said as they continued onward then up a short flight of stairs, noticing that some of the sludge was also smeared on the walls. They approached a type of storage area and another large metal door, the sign above reading “Door Vault”.

“We made it!” Mike cheered as they approached the door. However, they were stopped when Randall appeared in front of them, a wicked smirk on his face. “You again?” Mike groaned as he glared at the lizard monster. “Didn’t you learn your lesson from that pile-of-junk fiasco?”

“Oh, I learned a lot,” Randall said with a smirk as he stepped aside, revealing the same metal contraption from before. Everyone tensed up when they saw it, but Mike just brushed it off as he strutted up to it to prove it wasn’t dangerous.

But then, Boo gave off small scared cries as she clung to Sully’s leg, the monster looking down at her in worry. Even Riku and his companions sensed that something was wrong. “Sully, take Boo someplace safer,” Riku said as he hurried over to Mike, Sully nodding as he picked up the girl. The smaller monster turned back to the others with a smile.

“See?” he said as he kicked the metal contraption. “It’s just more junk!” 

“No, something’s different,” Aqua said as she looked around for Randall. They all heard the lizard chuckle and saw that he had climbed up a nearby wall, watching them. Then they felt the surge of darkness as something black and slimy moved behind Mike. He must have noticed it as well, as he turned around to see, falling over in shocked fear as the wielders summoned their keyblades. The metal contraption was being controlled by a black sludge monster with familiar red eyes and mouth, the Unversed emblem on a metal plate on its head and scream canisters stuck to its sides. The monster let out a loud roar as tentacle-like arms stretched out of its body. Sully came up besides Mike and helped him up.

“It’s time to reach in and let the scary out,” he said with a smirk, baring his sharp teeth. Mike looked up at his friend before smiling back, smacking his cheeks, then letting out his own growl.

“Oh, I’m ready!” Mike declared as he and Sully joined the wielders. “Let’s show this blob who the real monsters are!”


	15. Monstropolis pt3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry about updating this later than planned. Took me a while to figure out how to end this arc, but cosmotomaton was a great help!
> 
> The Monstropolis arc is now over! From here on, chapter updates will be a bit infrequent, unless I get a sudden bout of inspiration over the next week and pump out a few chapters.
> 
> Credit to cosmotomaton for multitasking helping me beta read!

**Monstropolis pt3**

While Mike and Sully were a big help in taking out the blob Unversed, it was still a difficult battle. Many times, the Unversed would charge across the storage area at full speed, knocking over anyone in its path, or, when they thought it was done it would summon tentacle-like arms from the ground, attacking the group while it regained energy. At another point, it summoned over 20 more tentacles as the blob took on a bird-like appearance, its huge wings sending them flying. After multiple healing spells, Hi-Potions, and joint attacks, the blob Unversed let out one final roar before the sludge melted away, leaving behind the pieces of metal from before, covered in black slime. The Unversed symbol on its head faded away, and the wielders could no longer sense any darkness from it. They had won.

“No!” Randall shouted as he slithered down the wall and over to the slime covered remains of the Unversed. Realizing that the lizard monster wasn’t a threat to them, Riku and the other wielders dismissed their weapons as they watched Randall. Behind them, Mike looked over and noticed that there was a door covered in cracks, held together by a dark force. The wielders missed Mike giving Sully a silent visual on scaring Randall enough to shock him before they saw the big blue monster quickly rush past them, Lea attempting to call out to him only to be silenced by Aqua as they watched him. He stopped right behind Randall, who sensed someone behind him and turned around. When he did, Sully bared his teeth and let out a deafening roar.

He wasn’t called the top scarer for nothing, after all.

===

A short time later, Randall was surrounded by the monsters and wielders inside of the vault, facing the cracked door with a frown. Mike strutted up to the door and opened it for the lizard with a smile.

“Now, in ya go,” he said with a flourish of his arm, making Randall snarl. Boo glared at him from Sully’s arms, giving him another cute growl.

“There is no place for you here, anymore,” Sully said as he hugged Boo, smiling down at the little girl. “Now we’re in the business of making children laugh.” Boo gave the monster a giggle as she hugged him back.

“Oh, you think this is so funny?” Randall said angrily as Mike patted him on the back.

“Hilarious!” Mike exclaimed. “The more you whine, the funnier.” 

Randall continued to growl at the monsters until he saw Riku, Aqua, and Lea out of the corner of his eye, each of them glaring at him while the silver haired teen had Braveheart resting on his shoulder as a silent threat. The lizard knew what kind of damage he could do with it, he visibly deflated before walking to the open door, pushing Mike out of the way.

“Enjoy your extended vacation,” Sully said with a wave, Boo waving along with him.

“You clowns are gonna be sorry,” Randall snarled as he walked into the door. “I’ll be back one day, and this place will be--”

“Mama, that gator’s in the house again!” a male voice called out from the other side of the door.

“Are you kiddin’ me?” a woman shouted. “Get me my shovel!”

Mike let out a string of laughs and grimaces as he closed the door, drowning out Randall’s cries at whatever was being dished out on him on the other side.

“Now, all we have to do is break the door,” Sully said as he approached the closed door, balling up a fist with the intent to smash it.

“But, won’t he just find a way to rebuild the door again?” Riku asked the monster, making him stop mid swing. The thought didn’t seem to occur to him until just then, so he dropped his fist. “What do you guys think?” Riku asked Aqua and Lea. Lea just shrugged while a small smile came to Aqua.

“I have a better idea,” she said as she summoned Master Keeper, approaching the cracked door. She raised her key up to the door, the tip glowing as a keyhole appeared on it. The young woman waited patiently as a stream of light came from her key and into the keyhole, giving off a golden glow that left the monsters and little girl in awe. After a moment, they all heard the click of a lock, then the door glowed one last time before disintegrating into sparkles of light. “Now he won’t be a problem anymore,” she said as she smiled at everyone, Mike and Sully giving sighs of relief.

“Thanks, Aqua,” Riku said with a smile while Lea gave her a thumbs up. The actions made her blush slightly, however, it only made her monster cheeks turn purple.

They eventually found Boo’s door a few rows up, everyone had to use the other doors to climb up, balancing on the rails to take a rest. When they reached the white door, Sully grabbed on along with Mike, the wielders standing on the surrounding rails.

“It’s time to go home, Boo,” Sully said as he smiled down at the little girl. “You must be tuckered out, but we’ll play together again real soon.”

But before they had the chance to try and turn on the door, it suddenly began to move, making the monsters look around in shock. Riku, Aqua, and Lea quickly grabbed onto a door that followed close behind them.

“What  _ now _ ?!” Mike shouted as their doors were pulled along the rail towards the Laugh Floor.

===

When the doors were brought down by the arms and attached to the floor, everyone jumped off and looked around.

“Did you bring us back, Mike?” Aqua asked the green monster curiously.

“Not me,” he declared with a shake of his head. “Someone in here must have called for them.”

“But, I don’t see anyone,” Lea said as he looked around the Laugh Floor. They were the only ones there. Not even the Unversed were slinking about.

“Of course, you would overlook the shadows…”

Riku’s ears perked up when he heard Sora’s voice, making him smile as he turned to face a cloaked figure approaching them, everyone else tensing slightly when they saw the newcomer. 

“So—“ Riku called out to his friend, but quickly stopped himself when the boy pulled down his hood to reveal a solid black helmet concealing his face even more. “W-who…”

“ _ Vanitas _ !” Aqua shouted as she summoned Master Keeper, getting in front of everyone to protect them.

“Isn’t he the one responsible for the Unversed?” Lea asked her, getting into a fighting stance but had yet to summon his weapon. “With that coat, he’s with the Organization as well!”

Riku tried his best to keep up with the others, but his gaze was focused on the masked boy. He was sure it was Sora’s voice calling to him.

“It’s a good thing someone remembered me,” Vanitas said, his expression unknown but his rough voice filled with sass, giving them a little bow. Yes, that was definitely Sora’s voice. A bit on the rough side, in a way, but still, at least Riku wasn’t crazy.

“What are you doing here?” Aqua demanded from the boy, tightening her grip on her keyblade as Vanitas picked up one of the yellow canisters that had fallen to the floor from the earlier battle with the Unversed. “And how did you get back here? You disappeared ten years ago, when the x-blade was destroyed!”

“Wouldn’t you like to know,” Vanitas said cryptically as he lifted up the canister, tossing it up in the air a few times. “To put it in a simpler way you idiots could understand, I had some help from my  _ master _ .” The way he spat out ‘master’, Riku knew that he was talking about Master Xehanort. “And thanks to a certain someone with a heart clouded with revenge, my Unversed collected enough screams and sadness to reconstruct my broken heart. After all, it’s only made of negativity, and screams are the most potent form of it.” Riku cocked a brow at that statement. A heart made up of  _ only  _ negativity?

“Yeah, and they ended up trashing our company to the ground in the process!” Mike yelled angrily as he tried to run at the masked boy, Sully literally holding him back with one hand as Boo hid behind him.

“But, even with all this negative emotion, my heart remains incomplete,” Vanitas said in an almost strained voice, dropping the canister to the hard ground, causing the valve on it to rupture and send the canister flying across the room, a child’s scream escaping from it. Everyone scattered to avoid being hit by the rogue canister before it came to a stop at Riku’s feet, completely empty. “I need my other half. The half of me that sleeps on… inside of Sora…”

“What?” Riku questioned as he looked up at Vanitas and saw that he now had a dark keyblade in one hand, a familiar bright green eye in the blade staring back at them. If he was a being of darkness and negativity like he claimed to be, how could he wield a keyblade of his own? “What are you talking about?” Vanitas looked up at the older teen, and for some reason, for only a second, Riku thought for sure his childhood friend was looking up at him.

“You probably wouldn’t know, as I doubt that insignificant speck remembered enough to tell you,” Vanitas said with a shrug as he rested the keyblade on his shoulder in a similar fashion to Sora. “When he was little, Sora formed a special bond with a boy named Ventus - our heart breaking in half after we were forcefully separated - and he joined with his.”

“Ven?!” Aqua gasped in shock, her stance faltering slightly at the mention of her friend. 

“Wait, so Ventus’ heart is… inside Sora’s heart?” Lea questioned, looking to his companions. “And this kid is half of him?” Riku saw Vanitas’ shoulders twitch slightly at being called “kid”.

“That’s…” Aqua was at a loss for words, her keyblade going lax in her hand. But just as quickly she shook her head and regained her composure, glaring at Vanitas harshly. “D-don’t trust him! He is nothing but negativity and darkness: there is no way he has any connection to Ven!”

“Of course, you would think that,” Vanitas said with a growl, small wisps of darkness emitting from his body. “Poor Venty-Wenty, so perfect and full of light. But, not everything starts off perfect and wholesome, and Ventus wasn’t always only light…” Aqua growled at the implication, baring her razor sharp teeth at him.

“But, if that’s true,” Riku said as he stood his ground before Vanitas, getting in front of Aqua as she watched him curiously. “Then you aren’t completely darkness, as it cannot exist without some light...” 

At his words, Vanitas went completely still, seeming at a loss for words. But after a second, the masked boy let out another growl.

“You don’t know me!” he shouted as he sent out a strong wave of darkness, knocking Lea onto his back with a surprised shout while Aqua fell to her knees to keep herself in place. The only one who seemed unaffected by the dark wave was Riku, who stood his ground as he took a few small steps towards Vanitas, stopping just a few feet away when he pointed his keyblade at him. The two boys stared at each other, the silence long and intense. Not even their monster friends spoke, peeking out from behind a desk with Boo protectively in Sully’s arms.

“There’s something about you,” Riku said calmly as he watched the reflective mask Vanitas wore, concealing his expressions completely. “If you are connected to Ventus, and he’s connected to Sora, then you have some connection to him as well.” Vanitas clicked his tongue before he gave Riku a harsh chuckle.

“Are you an idiot?” the masked boy asked him. “I already said so before: Sora shared his heart with Ventus, my other half. Of course, we’re connected! Weren’t you listening before?”

“No, the ‘connection’ you speak of is different,” Riku said as he stood his ground, taking the end of the dark keyblade and pointing it away from him as he attempted to take a step closer. However, he stopped when he saw Vanitas tense up. “Tell me… why do you wear a mask?”

“What?” Vanitas asked, genuinely confused due to his lack of attitude. Aqua and Lea watched their friend curiously as they got to their feet.

“I don’t really see a point in wearing a mask when wearing that coat,” Riku stated, giving the shorter male a small smirk. His next few words will either provide him more answers or get him skewered, so he had to be careful. “It does an okay job keeping your identity hidden, but a mask on top of it? Only a coward would hide their face so much.” Vanitas snarled at his words, the keyblade trembling in Riku’s hand.

“Shut up!” Vanitas shouted as he swung his keyblade, only to be blocked by Braveheart, the force pushing Riku back a few inches but not away from him entirely. Aqua gasped as she tried to hurry to them, but Lea grabbed her arm, holding her back.

“Just trust him,” Lea said with a serious look on his face. Aqua looked between the redhead and Riku, her grip on Master Keeper tight.

“Do you take me for a weakling?!” Vanitas shouted as he swung his keyblade at Riku, blocking each hit but making no move to fight back. This seemed to anger Vanitas more as he continued to swing his keyblade, his attacks becoming uncoordinated and erratic. “Are you looking down on me?! Mocking me?!”

“Sorry, did I hit a nerve?” Riku asked the masked boy as he continued to smirk. When he heard Vanitas snarl at him, it made the silver haired teen remember when he and Sora used to fight back on the islands. “You gonna cry about it?” His comment only irritated Vanitas more as wisps of darkness began to rise from his body again, and from his shadow, Riku saw red eyes and dark blue figures moving about.

“So, you want to see my face so badly?” Vanitas questioned the silver haired teen with a growl as their keyblades clashed again. “Fine! I’ll show you who the real coward is!” Riku starred as part of the mask began to melt away, revealing spiky black hair underneath. Then a golden amber eye glaring up at him--

“Leave him alone!”

Riku and Vanitas looked up at the familiar voice as a black figure came right at the masked boy from above, swinging a gold and silver keyblade that forced Vanitas to jump back. He blocked the attack as his mask reformed over his face, a growl escaping him as he pushed his attacker back. Now, they stood between Riku and Vanitas, keyblade raised in defense.

“Sora?” Riku gasped in shock when he saw the familiar Kingdom Key keyblade in the newcomer’s hand. His hood stayed up this time so the teen couldn’t see them clearly, but he knew it was his friend.

“I knew coming after your little boy-toy would draw you out,” Vanitas said with a cackle as he raised his keyblade, making Sora flinch at those words. “Now, you’re mine!” And just as Vanitas charged, Sora did the same, making them both clash in the middle with a strong enough hit that even Riku felt the force of it. Sora was becoming stronger. They continued to attack each other as they darted around the Laugh Floor, and each time their keyblades collided, a miniature shockwave went across the room. Everyone watched in awe as the two boys fought until Sora let out a cry of shock as he was knocked back by a powerful swing attack, landing on his knees near Riku.

“Sora!” Riku shouted as he ran to help him, but stopped when a keyblade was pointed right at him, and not from his enemy but from his friend. “Why won’t you let me help you?” Riku asked him, his voice desperate. Sora turned to look up at him but stopped before their eyes connected, and Riku saw for just a moment that more of his hair had turned white and one of his blue eyes was now solid amber.

“You won’t escape me this time!” Vanitas shouted as he charged at Sora with the intent to strike him down. But, Riku would have none of it as he ran in front of Sora, Braveheart out to protect him…

However, Vanitas was stopped when the three humanoid Heartless appeared again from a dark corridor, gripping onto the masked teen tightly- one on his back with its arms around his neck, one on his dominant arm, and the last one on his left leg- keeping him in place. “W-what the hell?!” Vanitas shouted as he tried to shake the Heartless off him, they held on tight as Riku watched them in shock.

“I’m sorry…” Riku heard Sora say softly before he ran past him, gripping onto Vanitas’ coat at the collar tightly, then threw themselves and the Heartless through the portal.

“Sora!” Riku shouted as he ran to the portal, but fell to his knees as it vanished before he could reach it. He dropped Braveheart, dismissing the keyblade as Aqua and Lea ran to his side.

“Are you okay?” Aqua asked him as she knelt down next to him, examining the teen for injuries. Riku was sure she knew he was fine since Vanitas didn’t manage to land a single hit on him, but it was most likely just for her own reassurance that he was okay. Lea just looked down at him with worry in his eyes, before he looked up at the place Sora had disappeared to with Vanitas.

“Who was that guy?” Lea turned around when he heard Sully call out to them, followed closely by Mike and Boo. They looked down at Riku with worry as he stayed on his knees, Aqua rubbing his shoulder in support.

“That was Riku’s friend, Sora,” Lea said as he gave them an apologetic smile. “The one we’ve been looking for. The guy with the mask was Vanitas, a bad dude part of the Organization, a whole gang of bad dudes. He was the one responsible for bringing Randall back and the Unversed, but I don’t think they’ll be a problem anymore.” Mike and Sully let out deep sighs of relief at that.

“It seemed like Riku had it covered,” Sully said with a smile. “We were seriously thinking of getting the jump on him if things went sideways.”

“Yeah, had a plan and everything,” Mike said as he showed the handful of keycards for calling doors from the vault before pointing at a nearby machine surrounded in wooden splinters. Lea wasn’t a hundred percent sure, but he had an idea of what they planned to do with the masked boy.

Boo walked past the monsters and up to Riku, everyone watching her curiously as she patted Riku on his head, petting his ears. Riku was a bit surprised at the action, but didn’t reject it as he smiled at the little girl. “Thanks, Boo,” he said softly, making her smile brightly. She then giggled as she gave the silver haired teen a hug, Riku giving her a soft pat on the back. 

“Sorry we had to end your playdate a bit early,” Aqua said with a smile as Boo let out a big yawn, rubbing her eyes as she pulled back from Riku. “But you need to get home now.” Boo gave a sad frown at the idea of going home even though she was tired.

“But we can always catch up another time!” Mike exclaimed with a smile to cheer her up.

“Mike Wazowski!” Boo said, making Aqua and Mike blink in shock before the green monster let out a frustrated sigh.

“No, that’s Aqua--”

“Mike Wazowski!” Boo repeated, this time running up to Mike to give him a hug. The monster seemed shocked, but it quickly turned to happiness as he hugged her back. She then pulled back and ran up to Aqua. “Aqua!” she exclaimed as she wrapped her arms around her neck, making her gasp in surprise before returning the hug with a bright smile. Lea wasn’t at all surprised when the little girl then ran up to him and hugged his leg while squealing “Puppy!”

“Yeah, yeah,” Lea sighed as he patted the girl on her head before she pulled back, giggling up at him.

“Let’s get you home,” Sully said with a bright smile as he held a hand out to her. 

And with that, Riku, Aqua, and Lea waved goodbye to Boo as she entered her door, the girl giggling and waving back.

===

A short time later, the three wielders were back on the gummiship and in the lanes between. Mike and Sully had escorted them to the entrance of Monsters Incorporated before bidding them goodbye and happy exterminating, hoping they would return again someday. Once they had left the world, the three had reverted back to their human forms, and they were now sitting quietly in their respective chairs, Aqua and Lea watching Riku with worry in their eyes. He had been tense ever since the encounter with Sora and Vanitas.

Everyone jumped when a sudden song began to play, Riku quickly realizing that it was his phone as he dug it out of his pocket. 

“Is it a bad time?” Ienzo asked through the phone, almost able to feel the tension despite being worlds away.

“No, we just finished up in one world and are a bit worn out is all,” Riku said with a half-smile, Aqua and Lea getting up from their seats to stand on either side of the teen. “Is everything alright?”

“Yes, we have managed to decipher more of Ansem’s code, and we have some information on getting Roxas a replica body.”

“What’ve you got?” Lea asked with a smile, eyes lighting up at the mention of his friend. Ienzo gave him a small nod and a smile.

“We managed to find Even’s notes on creating replicas and are going through them, even though it is mostly incomplete. And once the data is completely deciphered, we can place Roxas’ digital heart within a new body. We would be able to get through his notes and complete his research faster if he was here, however.”

“What do you mean by that?” Aqua asked the scientist curiously.

“Oh, I guess I never told you,” Ienzo said with an apologetic frown. “When we all woke up after being recompleted, Even was the only one still unconscious. But around the time Lea left, Even must have woken up and left, or was taken without our knowledge, and we have been unable to locate him since.”

“Do you want us to look for him?” Aqua asked the scientist, but he just shook his head, long silver bangs swaying with the motion.

“No, your mission is to find Sora. We will look for Even while you focus on looking for your friend.”

“Okay,” Riku said with a small smile. “And you said something about Ansem’s code?”

“Yes. We were able to decipher some of his notes and found an interesting passage. I will read it to you.” The young man turned to look over his computer screen as he began reading.

“ _ ’I have discovered four unique hearts inside of Sora’s. One is Roxas. The second has been with Sora for nearly as long. And the last two have resided in Sora’s heart for even longer– most of his life. And, based on my findings, these two hearts are even more unique, in that one seems to consist almost entirely of light, while the other mostly darkness while not inflicting any harm to the others. These two hearts also appear to share a bond with each other while maintaining their own separate existence. This is truly an astonishing discovery. While these hearts now melded with Sora– grown silent and indistinct– Sora retains the memories of all four. The memories have been compartmentalized– each placed in its own ‘box’, so to speak. I surmise the hearts can be awoken, provided that each of them is returned to the box that contains the correct memories. Unite the hearts with its memories and provide it a suitable body within it may flourish, and I believe any or all four people can be made real again.’ _ ”

Ienzo looked back at his phone screen, seeing the three wielders looking to each other in shock. “This may be a lot of information to digest,” Ienzo said with a sigh. “I will leave you to your mission and contact you again once more data has been deciphered.” And with that the call ended and the screen went black.

“Roxas and  _ three _ more?” Lea repeated curiously. “Who could those other hearts be?”

“Maybe…” Riku stated as he rubbed his chin in thought, the others looking at him. “And this may sound crazy, but I think two of those hearts are Ventus and Vanitas...”

“Are you really going to believe what  _ he  _ said?” Aqua asked him with a glare, crossing her arms. She seemed very reluctant to believe the masked boy’s words.

“But it makes sense,” Riku said as he turned to look up at her. “I also remember something happening a long time ago, when Sora and I were still kids. One day, he had started crying, saying he could feel someone was in pain and needed his help.” At those words Aqua’s eyes slowly grew wide. “I told him that if he felt it was the right thing to do, then he should respond to them. That was 10 years ago, around the time you said Ventus went to sleep and you fell into the Realm of Darkness. And, it matches with what Vanitas said about Sora helping him when he was a child.” He then turned and gave Lea a smile, making the redhead give him a look. “And besides: Lea was once part of the Organization, and look how he turned out.” Lea chuckled at that as he rubbed the back of his head. 

“But… Lea is different,” Aqua said as she gave them a small frown. “Lea was originally somebody on the side of light, who was forced into a situation where he was on the side of dark. Vanitas was created from darkness, and creates monsters from his negative emotions. There is nothing ‘good’ about him.” She walked back to her seat, arms still crossed as she appeared tense. “Even if what he says makes sense, I still don’t trust him.” Riku wanted to refute her claims but stayed silent, glaring down at the gummiship controls. Lea crossed his arms, brows tight with concentration.

“It's still a possibility,” the redhead said after a moment. “A little far-fetched, but we have seen weirder things…” Riku heard Aqua click her tongue, but he chose to ignore her, simply agreeing to disagree with her. “But if that’s true,” Lea continued as he rubbed his chin in thought. “Then, who’s the fourth heart?”

“That I don’t know,” Riku said as he frowned down at the control panel.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> If you can't tell, there is a bit near the end that I took creative liberties in writing. Wonder if you guys can figure out what is implied...


End file.
